Cleo — The Beginning :: Parts 1 & 2 (WiP) by JC

Part 1 — Escape

“Welcome to Red Plateau North, please ensure you have your security identification cards on you at all times. Security rating name badges must be worn at all times. This shuttle will take you to Northern Ring three through five.”

“Impressive huh?”

“Very, I take it the rings are where you do the actual work?”

“Yes, though Northern Ring is the smallest, it used to house one of the NSAs super computers before they adopted the policy of using elegant devises. Our own computer system is much more powerful but held separate from the main facility just in case we’re raided.”

“Raided?”

“Well I’m sure the government would love a chance of getting a hold on our research, and as for MCO… lets just say they may be one of our best customers but if they had to publicly acknowledge our existence they’d shut us down too.”

“MCO are a customer?”

“Sure and one of our biggest investors, the hardliners love the idea of having mutants specially bred to remove the threat of random mutations permanently.”

“It seems…”

“Yeah well only maybe ten percent of the high level internal power structure have any inkling of our existence, which is the way we hope it’ll stay.”

“Professor Grimbsy I know you are into the drugs scene, how much do you know of our work here?”

“Drugs scene… Yes I like it… Well I know you breed mutants with specific characteristics, but that’s about all. My own field is in creating drugs that only affects mutants, just think of the power of a drug that could be broadcast in large amounts that would incapacitate every mutant who breathes it.”

“Oh we have, however the drug we have most interest in is Di-Gerino-Duo-Emphatalese, we haven’t given it a catchy name and to be honest I don’t think most humans are ready for it yet. Have you heard of it?”

“Hmm the initials yes but only as part of another test. DGDE kills ninety percent of the test subjects, with those that do going through a process similar to catastrophic fatal burnout, the survivors are either existing mutants or become mutated by the drug.”

“Exactly. It was originally developed in the nineteen sixties, to encourage the development of mutations, the guy that created it was bent on creating a whole new race of as he called them ’Neo Humans’. Needless to say with some few exceptions he failed.

“About eight years ago we re-examined the drug and found that with some modifications it could be used to power boost a normal mutant to be between four hundred and five hundred percent more powerful, depending on the actual mutation. However we found that mutations varied so much that in practice the actual boost effect was ungovernable.

“Rather than messing about with a near perfect drug we decided that the obvious answer, bearing in mind our expertise, was to engineer a perfect mutant to use with the drug.”

“And you’ve been successful?”

“Generally yes, we have isolated the actual mutation that each will require and to an extent created the perfect candidate. Ah we’re here, if you’ll follow me I’ll give you a bit of a tour, you can see for yourself.”

“Now stopping at Northern Ring Three, please make your way into the reception area where a representative will meet you.”

~@~

Days were all the same here, Cleo wasn’t cold or warm, hungry or overfed all his needs were met without question, and his training left no room for questioning this life. For Cleo living in a single room was perfectly normal.

He’d been in this room ever since his birth, a time he could remember with clarity, but then it had only been ninety days ago. Of course before that he’d been given his training, but as that mostly consisted of things he wasn’t allowed to do it scarcely bothered him.

Every day a procession of researchers would come and test him, the devices that did the testing often hurt, but as he’d been trained Cleo never protested. The devices seldom worked well, partly due to the size difference between a flawed subject like himself and a normal subject and partly because his fields got in the way a lot, especially when something different was happening or the pain became particularly intense.

In the last seven or eight days though the researchers had stopped coming to see him, he wasn’t bored precisely but in his heart he wished something would happen. In the meantime he went over one of the callisthenics’ exercises he had been taught in training to keep his body working at peak performance.

~@~

“We never finished working on the reception, our residents tend to hang out in Ring Zero when off duty, and as the subjects never leave their testing suites there was no need of a ring level meeting area. Each ring is just that a complete ring, they slope slightly so that in effect it’s a giant spiral, but due to the size its hardly noticeable.

“The shuttle we came on stops at 3, 4 and 5 before returning to Ring Zero, obviously at this time of day there isn’t a lot of use in it, but at peak periods we run one shuttle every five minutes to the other ring complexes, and about one every half hour to northern.

“Until we hit a viable product with this particular test we’ll continue with just the three rings once we move up to a full product line we’ll expand to the limits of Northern.”

“How many rings is that?”

“At the moment twelve but if the demand is as high as we hope for this product we can use other sections.

“Okay at the moment, Ring three or R3 as we call it internally, is primarily education, and five is ongoing testing, four is were we do the majority of the breeding, we also keep a number of interesting subjects who for one reason or another have failed and are being tested to find out what the failure is, so we don’t repeat our mistakes.”

“Understandable.”

“If you look through here, this is where we keep some of our breeding males.”

“You keep males for breeding I would have though artificial insemination would have been more scientific.”

“We started off that way in all honesty but we found that the actual process of the sperm swimming to its destination was as important to the program as getting the right sperm in there in the first place. These males have been partially redesigned, they have one track minds and when in heat, which is drug induced, can service a female once every thirty minutes. Outside that time they are sleepy and very docile.

“The females are in this room here…”

“She doesn’t look like a very good mother type.”

“That’s one of our subjects actually, the mothers are the low slung silvery grey machines she is cleaning. We managed to bring the gestation time down somewhat and each of those machines can carry a child to term successfully every six months.

“And the girl?”

“We use passed out subjects for menial tasks, Stacy here was originally designed for use in a middle eastern country, but the skin is far too pale and she burns much too easily. So her and her remaining sisters were reprogrammed as cleaners which is what they do with the same loyalty that they would have shown their masters had they succeeded in the original intention.”

“You mention programming?”

“Next room for that, after the child is born from the artificial womb it is given a minor test to check it adheres to the base line for that subject and passed through into the incubation chamber. They spend two years in here and grow to full adult size. During that growth period we simulate eight years of training and give those that are going into the outside world training for that, plus a believable back story.

“For production subjects they’re decanted into a final testing room, tested and then sent to a release facility, all of the subjects here get sent to an advanced testing suite and they only leave that through the incinerator.”

~@~

Cleo knew about the incinerator, he didn’t know what it was or where it was but often the researchers would joke about the big incinerator in the sky, or tell him that the incinerator was were all good subjects ended up, he guessed it was a joke, because they normally laughed after they said it.

~@~

“Okay onto some real subjects now, first room here we have Torg, named because his motor skills aren’t up to much and his movements are rather robotic. ’Torg come to the window.’ The windows have sensors around them that let us give simple commands to the subjects, they’re all trained to respond to any direct command, and due to the distances between the windows even if you shout, the command will only be picked up by one sensor and passed to one subject.

“Torg here is absolutely obedient, this is by mistake we prefer the subject have a sense of self, although as they have no training other than combat skills, and testing procedures that sense of self has no real outlet. Sadly Torg here would happily kill himself I if I ordered him to.

“However the reason for showing you him is that he perfectly highlights what we are trying to achieve in body shape. In his normal clothing as you can see now he looks like any other military grunt, but once we remove the clothes, ’Torg remove all your clothes.’ We can see the changes we made to the form to create the perfect fighting machine.

“First of all the hair is as long as it gets, he’ll never need a hair cut. Notice the sheer size of the upper body? That is due in part to the crystalline carbonised bone structure, but also due to the sheer amount of muscle he has built in the last year and a half since birth. Moving lower slim hips, trim waist this guy will never need to diet.

“We did some tests on various existing fighters both mutant and normal, we found that their one big weakness was their genitalia, so in all our fighting subjects we either removed the genitalia entirely or as in this case remove the functional parts, and replaced them with something that will allow normal function and appearance but with both the extra nerve endings and the function.”

“Non functional?”

“Yes we decided that not long after our inception that we wouldn’t create subjects that could replicate themselves, not only would that risk the human race as a whole, after all most of our creations are better than human. But it would also eventually put us out of business. Except in very special circumstances every product that leaves any of our assembly plants is totally sterile, often entirely lacking the equipment.

“Torg here has a pair of fatty lumps similar to cists that most people grow at one time or another, the penis is fairly standard though we reduced the nerves leading to it by about ninety percent, he uses it to piss, but not much else.”

~@~

“This subject is one of our most interesting, only as to how far out of parameters it went. At 6 months it tested as normal, that is it tested within the parameters for this experiment, but though the system is designed to destroy any aberrations as they are found, this one was decanted about three months ago, as you see it now.”

“She doesn’t look particularly aberrant, quite pretty in fact.”

“He’s supposed to look like Torg’s clone.”

“Ah…”

“Cleo come to the window and strip.

“The changes from what we wanted to see and what we do see are quite remarkable, he has an outwardly female appearance to the point of having an apparent vagina, from scans we have done he also has non-functional ovaries and womb. Above and beyond that he also has a retractable penis, though nothing resembling testes. Its possible that either his body will continue to develop into something more female, or that it will remain as it is.

“His pectoral muscles are more pronounced as he has a small amount of breast growth on them.”

“I don’t understand, having seen some of your other products in the other areas of the facility none of this is particularly odd. And while I understand he is a long way from what you were trying to create, surely a quick termination and you can try again with a slightly different genetic code.”

“Cleo here is in every other respect a perfect product. If the end product had to look like a teenage girl, then Cleo would be the mother of the product line, he has all the skills and abilities that we need, he responds well to DGDE, in fact so well that we have already taken gene samples and are planning to clone Cleo here to find out if we can create a new version of the drug that matches his mutation better. The next batch should be out of gestation within five months.

“If we can somehow combine Torg’s good looks with Cleo’s abilities we’ll have a perfect product to release.”

“And that is where I come in?”

“Yes. Cleo here is scheduled for termination, it’ll show you exactly how the system works, I’ll also show you to tour laboratory.”

“But I’ll need a test subject to test new versions of the drug.”

“You’ll have them Professor, however Cleo has the wrong training for the drugs testing, he’d probably burn out possibly catastrophically, he also has some anomalies on the existing test results, we want to start the new testing from a standard baseline.”

“Yes but…”

“Professor we know why you want to get hands on, as it were, with Cleo. But I should point out his current training is to deal with pain as a threat, he’d kill you faster than you could hit the panic button.”

“He doesn’t look…”

“Like his simulated eight years of training and body is hardened to kill, no that is a good point… Follow me to the control room I’ll show you some video nasties…”

~@~

Cleo of course knew nothing of the conversation outside the window onto his room, after some time he re-dressed, though both the t-shirt and shorts were far too big, made for someone with a larger frame he had learnt that casual nudity while happily accepted by some researchers was not liked by most.

He went back to manipulating his fields, he’d first discovered them fifty six days ago during a particularly difficult testing session. He didn’t quite know what they were but he could use them to shield parts of his body, he assumed as no-one ever actually asked him whether or not he could do anything like that that everyone could.

He could create the fields anywhere he could see and push them into places he couldn’t see, like through the window or under the door, only he could see them and as he mainly created them when alone no-one else he knew had been present to see them. His training led him to know that each suite was monitored at all times, but his lack of real world experience meant he had no way of applying this knowledge.

~@~

“Oh my God…”

“So as you can see annoying that pretty little boy might really not be such a good idea. But you can flush him a way and wait for a far more biddable subject. And if that isn’t good enough Ring Zero has a personal testing facility that would allow you to sample some of the other products.”

“That little monster deserves to die… Sorry I just…”

“No need, now as you can see on the diagram there, the incinerator is in the centre of the rings, each room has an unlock code stored on the system, the code is released when the subject is due for termination. All the level three supervisors of course have an access override code too. But in this case Cleo is released already all you need to do is type in the word ’terminate’ on the terminal, and authorise it with your security card… yes swipe it through that reader… now you can watch…”

~@~

Cleo was startled out of a meditative slumber by a loud hiss, it came from the wall opposite the window. Turning he saw that an opening had formed in the wall leading to a darkness that he couldn’t see into. The opening continued to enlarge until the whole of the wall was gone, then in sudden movement the floor of the room slipped toward the opening and tilted. Cleo was flung into a noxious, smelly darkness lit dimly from below, he fell.

~@~

“Then as you can see he falls through the main opening here, this opening opens on all the rings in this section including the closed rings that are not currently in use, the fall for him is about two hundred metres, the entire cavity is over three hundred. At the bottom he will be crushed between two toothed rollers, that will even with his more than powerful constitution crush him to point that it would take months to recover from.

“After that he will fall through a lattice of high power quantum lasers that will turn him into little more than ash and greasy smoke. The smoke is filtered through our normal air filtering system and reintroduced into the outside world, the ash falls eventually into an underground river, we monitor that outside the mountains but we seldom see any noticeable deviations from what normally washes out from under these mountains.

“And that is the only way an experimental test subject can leave this facility.”

~@~

Gravity wasn’t a new concept nor was falling, but the massive impact of falling two hundred meters left Cleo with a clear idea not to willingly repeat the process. There was more light down here, so he could see somewhat around him. The floor sloped mostly quite steeply toward a regular opening at the very bottom of the chamber. Most of the light came through that hole. One small section of the floor was apparently a more recent addition and though he didn’t know it contained an access door into the chamber.

Some months ago a failed experiment had been jettisoned into the chamber, he had caused quite a lot of damage before being flushed through into the LRU, the access door had been added at this point to gain access to the chamber so repairs could be made. If Cleo had known that behind the door he was standing on was a short passage that would let him back into the maintenance passages of the complex he would have taken it, sadly he didn’t.

The hole in the floor appeared to be the only way out and still feeling a threat from the room above that had jettisoned him so unkindly into space Cleo began examining this potential way out. The hole was actually quite shallow, a passage began below the tube leading steeply downward, stepping through the hole onto the floor of the passage was however a bad move as the sides of this passage were nearly frictionless.

It was his instinctive use of fields to air brake that saved him from what some wag had christened the Laser Rendering Unit. He came to a halt perched precariously on a tiny lip of the tube, suspended close enough that he could feel the heat flux of the high intensity lasers immediately below him. Some dross that his passage had dislodged tumbled past him and incandesced a full meter from the actual radiance.

A rapidly formed field was next pushed into the laser, Cleo felt the pain as its force was crushed back into his head when it failed not much closer than the nameless dross had.

~@~

“Well its not normally something we do, they go down the tube and that is that, but we have cameras down there of course. Lets see now, it should be… no that can’t be right…”

“Is something wrong?”

“Of course not I must be getting the wrong camera feed.”

“Hang on lets look at the burner…”

“There, is that…”

“I’m going to ring security and maintenance, something is very wrong here.”

~@~

Cleo was stuck, the tube behind him was too slippery to climb back up, but he couldn’t get past the energy beams in front. The successive fields he’d sent into the beams had had more and more energy pumped into them making each one stronger than the last but each failed before they passed through the several layers of beams. Worse each failure increased the pounding in his head.

After several attempts however Cleo was working out how the beams worked, rather than pumping huge amounts of heat across the space the occupied each one pulsed with heat then immediately reversed this heat and turned it into the opposite. The beams also didn’t touch the walls of the chamber, ending some three feet away from the walls, though the walls in places looked like they had been gouged by the beams.

It has been said that necessity is the mother of invention and so it proved in this instance, until now all the fields that Cleo had made were meant to stop the heat/cold from getting through, if he had found a method he would have wrapped the field round himself and dropped through the energy field, then used the already tested air braking field to slow his descent to where ever this chamber led.

However in a fit of almost disgust he found a new way of creating a field, this field didn’t fail, instead it channelled the energy around itself. Gradually Cleo enlarged the field in the centre of the grid, until there was a space large enough for him to pass through, he dropped over the edge and fell quickly through the field and passed without harm through the grid.

However this last field was too much when it did eventually fail the energy rushing back into his head caused him to black out. He didn’t feel the icy cold of the underground river close over him before pulling him into the depths of the mountains.

~@~

“So what you are telling me is that the incinerator was damaged and no-one including yourself saw fit to tell anyone who actually relies on the system to remove evidence of the work we do here?”

“No sir, we sent a memo to all department heads and all main terminals were locked so that they couldn’t do any dumps. You used a sub terminal, which wasn’t set to warn as they are normally only used in emergency.”

“What actually happened to damage the incinerator?”

“Professor Grimsby?”

“Yes.”

“Well Professor, we flushed a dangerous mutant into the incinerator some time ago, he’d been given a drug that caused a DGDE release but wasn’t coming off the high, in fact if anything he was becoming more enraged. He hit the bottom of the main chamber but somehow managed to stop himself dropping into the rollers, he raged about for an hour or so wrecking in the process the mechanism that powers the rollers and badly damaging the rollers, he also knocked out some of the cameras down there.

“When he finally succumbed to the various soporific gasses we had been pumping the place full of and fell through the grid, we had a lot of repairs to do. We had to install an access hatch to get to the equipment, the new parts are ready to go in but we were going to wait until Thanksgiving weekend to actually do the work.”

“I see.”

“Look I checked the monitors, the beams in the LRU haven’t been offline for the last nine months, your subject isn’t on the monitor any more, he must have fallen through in the end, he has to be dead.”

“I have informed security we’re going into full lockdown they will send someone over to investigate the whole situation, there goes our holiday weekend gentlemen.”

~@~

“Sir I have a Jack Morton on line five.”

“Put him through Jane.”

“Paul, you have three hours to clear what you can from the complex, I have clear understanding that at that point the complex will be raided by MCO and the Feds.”

“Three hours! Is that all we need far more time than that.”

“Paul I’m currently in my car on the way into work I don’t officially know that my office has been suspended prior to a special investigation, luckily one of my secretaries is more loyal to me than MCO, I’ll be safe but there are quite a few loose ends here that I’ll lose, I’ve done what I can to keep them off your backs, but for now that’s it.”

“Okay, thanks for the warning anyway, hopefully when it all blows over we can get together and have a drink.”

“I’ll look forward to it.”

~@~

“Jane get me the head of security.”

“Yes sir.”

“Once you’ve done that we’re about to be raided so I want you to do as I trained you to and begin a little cleaning.”

“Yes sir.”

“Then get out and good luck.”

“Yes sir. Thank you sir.”

~@~

“John we have approximately two and a half hours to evacuate as much needed personnel before MCO gets here, you know the drill. I also want all the demolition charges set to four hours so that we get some of the bastards.”

“Of course sir.”

~@~

“IT.”

“This is the head of security, commence a full backup dump, MCO are coming.”

“Can’t.”

“What?”

“Can’t server is being hacked into as we speak, they hit the overrides first, we have zero control over the system, the backup servers are offline too, so they could well have gotten to them first. I’m already pulling my guys out of here just in case the interconnects fail and we actually have armed operatives coming here. Sorry chief you’re on your own.”

“Shit. Good luck.”

~@~

“Paul, I was talking to IT, MCO have got all the data, or are working on it now, IT are bailing already they’ll go to our safe spot for reactivation. I suggest you get your own personnel out of there and wait for it all to blow over.

“Paul are you there?”

“I regret to tell you mister Masters that Paul cannot come to the phone right now.”

“Jane is that you? Where is he?”

“That’s operative Jane to you mister Masters, oh and my boss asks me to politely inform you that you’re surrounded, come out slowly with your hands up.”

~@~

The underground river swept on as it had for countless generations, it had also carried bodies in the past, a tribe of Indians living in the mountains above it had once commended their dead to its black depths, not knowing, or perhaps not caring, that it rose to the surface no more than thirty miles away as the crow flies.

Cleo was lucky, the river ran swift and deep and though he spent much of the time submerged his body was designed to spend time underwater without need of air. As it happens the river was swift and he was washed up on a sand bank three miles below the emergence.

~@~

“Monday the first of December, meeting between Paul Dempsey, Ryan Chandler, Jane Caruthers and Francois D’Alene. Do any of you object to me recording this meeting?”

“Non.”

“No.”

“Nope.”

“Good, so tell me people what do we have? Lets start with you Jane.”

“As you know I have been working for Paul Giviere for approximately five years, originally I was simply a sleeper placed by the NSA to keep an eye on their facility. When MCO approached me to spy on Paul I was glad to help out. Put simply Paul and the groups backing him is one of the biggest threats to mankind that the world has seen.

“Regardless of your opinions of mutants, it is generally acknowledged that while we can do little to prevent their existence we can in theory at least control their movements and whereabouts, MCO has so far been pretty successful at the job. Paul Giviere was trying at one fell stroke to create a super mutant army, worse its not over yet, even though we have shut down one of the production facilities I know for certain that there are at least three more, one of which is in the US, the others I believe are in Europe or China.”

“Thank you Jane. What do you have Ryan?”

“Well our interest was initially in MCO funds that were being siphoned off into what we thought were private accounts, the corruption though was far worse, one of our regional directors a Jack Morton, was funding an investment in what we thought to be a small slavery ring, but on closer examination turned out to be a highly specialised group of criminals who were attempting to create specific mutants, and as we quickly found out were then selling these mutants to the highest bidder.

“However until Jane was in a position to contact us four months ago we had no idea as to where the production was taking place.

“Once we knew where to look the rest while a long job was fairly easy, we infiltrated most of the compound with our operatives and while the entirety of the underground facility was then unknown we surmised the size and layout from what the NSA gave us and how many transient staff worked underground.

“Make no mistake the whole system was very well set up, if Jane hadn’t got in contact we wouldn’t have found the place.”

“You were in the raid weren’t you Ryan?”

“Yes Paul.”

“Can you describe what you found, merely for the record.”

“Of course. The whole layout is difficult to describe but roughly speaking there are four immense wheels, the hub of each is a incinerator system to destroy used test subjects.

“Each wheel specialises in specific productions, the eastern wheel mainly created mutants for sexual activities; southern was mainly soldiers; west was for special commissions. None of the wheels were operating at their maximum capacity but if they had been the country could have easily been overrun from this one complex, if what Jane says is true and there is another in the US, we could have very serious issues ahead.

“In between the four wheels was an administration block and the main ground entry point, the building also contained a recreation area where employees could sample the delights of the various products, not all of them sexual in nature. They would regularly pit one soldier type against another to see which one won, I’m told that the battles would often be extremely violent and bloody.”

“Was there a northern wheel? You mentioned four but only described east, west and south.”

“Ah sorry, yes northern hub some fighting type coupled to drug use, I’m sure our technical investigations department can come up with something.”

“How many subjects did we rescue?”

“None Paul.”

“None?”

“Jack Morton somehow got word that we were about to arrest him, and were on our way to raid the complex, they had about an hours warning, apparently just enough time for some of the researchers to get out, however they had some system that dumped all the test subjects en masse into the incinerators. We think between three and four hundred subjects died.”

“Has Jack Morton been dealt with?”

“He was on his way to our enclave in Mexico when his car was ambushed and destroyed.”

“Hmm Francois, anything to add?”

“At this point no sir, but I recommend that we do a full internal audit make sure we have no more traitors in our midst.”

“Very well then if no-one else…”

“Ryan?”

“Just received a message, hang on… Okay we found a Professor Grimsby, he’s actually ex-MCO, got himself arrested and spent a few years inside for sexual crimes against a minor. We of course sacked him. He claims that one of the test subjects is possibly still alive in the caves below the complex.”

“How likely is that?”

“We haven’t penetrated far into the caves as yet sir, mostly they are flooded but we haven’t seen any sign of life. However the guy that found the professor says that he saw the same video feed that the professor saw, and the subject definitely made it to the river.”

“How dangerous is this one subject?”

“Unknown Paul, but from the reports we had of other subjects, we’re looking at something that could be extremely dangerous, whether or not they were breaking the law or doing inhumane tests, the scientists in the complex were making some very good advances, that much we can see from the data on the servers we accessed.”

“Damn. Okay thanks people, you all know what to do, I want daily reports from you plus inform me if anything changes.”

~@~

“Report.”

“We lost all contact with our North American facility at 13 hundred hours. The last telemetry data received indicated a raid by MCO, NSA and other US intelligence agencies. Twenty one members of staff escaped, and a further thirteen who were not on site due to ill health or other commitments have also been picked up and relocated to the Mexico Facility.”

“Current status?”

“The Facility is lost, with such a comprehensive raid we have lost too many members of staff and too much infrastructure to set up again. We also lost the data pool though have found an off site back up that is only a week old.”

“Any further thoughts?”

“The secure Telemetry data that was our last connection to the site indicates that one or more test subjects escaped through the subterranean caves below the northern test hub, MCO are already intensifying searches there.”

“Recommendations?”

“Ascertain whether or not subjects did escape or not, one of our moles in MCO should be able to confirm that. If there is one on the loose, especially one from that hub we need to recapture it.

“Move all secure staff to the Mexico facility and begin re-commissioning of that facility. Our Chinese Centre can take up any slack to prevent further monetary loss.

“Jack Morton who was with MCO should be found and removed for questioning, we need to know if he was our leak before he is killed. If he wasn’t then its possible he can do more good alive than dead.”

“Jack Morton was disposed of by MCO, though the death was engineered to look like an outside party had arranged it.”

“Very well, finally we must find new trusted high level assistance within MCO as a matter or urgency. When the war comes we must be as well prepared as they are.”

“Thank you for the suggestions I will see that they are passed on to high command.”

End of Part 1…

Part 2 — Evade…

“Professor Grimsby I have your case notes here, I know you’re a mutant…” Ryan Chandler was in his element now, special investigations were not only his forte but he enjoyed them too.

“You can’t prove that.” Professor James Grimsby wasn’t in his element and from the sweat poring from his brow not at all comfortable about the way this interview was heading.

“Would you like to bet?”

“Perhaps, now what can I help you with?”

Professor James Grimsby had been in custody before, only once and that hadn’t been much fun. But these people, his former employers, were known to use methods that even cops investigating a sicko like him seldom used. Hell he’d worked for them he knew what they were capable of. Besides one side effect mutation from a kid he’d raped years ago was hardly worth mentioning…

“You have photographic memory, perfect recall.”

“So its not illegal.”

“Yet.” The second operative interrupted for the first time. Paul Giviere was actually a dual nationality French-Canadian, though he’d travelled on his French passport this time, he still wasn’t overly welcome in the United States after what had happened last time he was here, however MCO duties came first as always and here was where he was needed now. Content to play bad cop for now, after all that is precisely where he had started out.

“We think you saw the records of a mutant who may have escaped from the facility where you were last employed.”

“I might have, but…”

“You want a deal? How about this then, we don’t throw the book at you for being in an illegal lab working on a project that could have destabilised world politics and created a catastrophe of epic proportions.”

We won’t inform the parole board that while in said lab you had access to minors without adequate adult supervision.”

“And I won’t leave you alone in here for Paul to work over, he just loves worms like you. Now give, you tell us what you know and you’ll be listed just the same as all the other researchers, you’ll get prosecuted just like them, with no past record, you’ll get three years tops, and won’t have to spend that in solitary. Deal?”

“What do you want to know?”

“Start at the beginning, vital statistics.”

“Okay, she looks like a good looking teenage girl, you know the type. Black hair in a crew cut, naked she looks like any other young teen girl, small breasts no body hair or identifying features…”

~@~

The girl lay half in the sun half in the shade, you could see her body mostly, the clothing wasn’t what you’d call revealing but it was so loose on the body it did show an awful lot off. The feet were bare and look rather dirty as though the girl had walked from somewhere down the road, not that there was anything in either direction for a long way.

Morris liked the way she looked, sort of young and sexy but innocent… one of them would change that of course, though Morris could still dimly remember his own daughter, oh a good fifteen years ago the last time he’d seen her. She’d looked quite sexy then too. He’d liked it most when she begged him, maybe this one would too, course they’d have to drag it out a bit, the last one they’d done had gone too soon.

Chase, was watching sleeping beauty too, he was particularly attracted to older ladies, but young flesh would make a nice change, and afterwards, if there was an afterwards he knew a man in Las Vegas who would pay for a young ’un like this, even used as she’d be by then.

The last of their number, now known as Dan wasn’t watching the teen he was making sure there was no one around in this deserted place. He’d last been this way three years ago, then there had still been a couple of old men living here, he’d got on well with them as they didn’t ask stupid questions all the time. Morris and Chase were okay too, though he wasn’t really into playing with fuck meat it seemed a stupid waste, especially one so young. She’d make a great whore in some of the places he knew he could sell her.

In the end they drew straws over the still sleeping girl. First to draw was Chase he got the middle length straw and the second attempt, he didn’t mind much, she’d still have some fight in her. Dan got the longest straw and so would go last. Morris won and got the pleasure of waking her up.

~@~

“… her skin though isn’t normal, they had created it in such a way that it would grow with nano-scale carbon fibres in it, they make it virtually proof against punctures or being cut, even if it is damaged at a provisional level 4 regeneration any small trauma would heal up straight away. They cut her arms and legs off at three days old and they had regenerated within two weeks. If she is given the drug they could regenerate in about a fifth of that time.”

“The drug?”

“They had this gland in their brains, all the experiments in the northern ring, if the right stimulus is given they can gland a weirdo hormone that stimulates all their abilities, the scientists I’d spoken to called it Blood Hype, the stimulus they used was a drug I’d come across before, though never used or tested. In normal non-mutant humans it causes a fatal burnout to occur, if the human is pre-pubescent then there is a chance that the drug will just mutate them. There is also a very small chance that adults taking the drug might become mutants.

“But, and this was the reason that they were developing this particular model, in practice the soldier wouldn’t have to be given an external stimulus they can gland it themselves when in real need.”

“Interesting, how close…”

“Paul can we return to the subject in hand we need to find out if the girl did escape and what she’s likely to do now. Anything else Professor?”

“She was designed as a perfect fighting machine and given hypno training for a simulated eight years. She has an incredible mind and body that works flawlessly together, and I’ve seen her kill.”

“Kill?”

“Yes they put her in a room with several others like her, though male and forced them to fight, she killed them all faster than I would have thought possible… and she did escape she fell through the laser thing I saw her drop through the air and into the river.”

“Now about her skills, specifically…”

~@~

Morris was quite concerned, he’d been raping young girls for over thirty years, his first was his younger sister and the last was a young girl in Mexico a year since. None of them reacted quite like this one, first of all she wasn’t scared to be alone in an abandoned gas station in the middle of nowhere with three scruffy looking men. Second she hadn’t protested at all when Morris had clumsily tried to undress her, he’d never had a problem before.

Now as he moved closer she didn’t back up and try and put space between them, she just stood there and tracked his face in the gloom of the building. This wasn’t they way it was supposed to go Morris knew, she should have been doing anything else but just watching him…

“Maybe she’s stupid?” Chase made him jump, “that’s right she ain’t scared ’cos she don’t know what we is going to do to her.”

“Maybe she is, maybe she isn’t but I wish you’d get a move on old man, I’m tired of waiting while you romance the slut.” Even that word failed to get a reaction from the girl. Morris had been at this far longer than either of the other two, on the road before either was born but girls seemed to know what slut meant.

“Guys I don’t know…”

“I knew it you’re too old, wasn’t I saying the other day soldier boy? Old man here is past it we should be off on our own. So Old man want me to warm the stupid cunt up for you?”

None of them used their real names anymore, but when doing this sort of thing they didn’t even use their other names. Chase was Runner, as that’s what he did best, Dan became soldier boy as once long ago he said he’d been in the army and Morris was the Old man as he was by far the oldest, and though he normally didn’t have an issue getting it up today he didn’t think he could.

Now Chase approached the girl, he was fast on his feet and moved with surety that Morris no longer felt, still the girl didn’t react, he spat in her face his spittle running down her brow, over her nose and across her lips, she didn’t look disgusted but mildly surprised. Unnerved by the lack of reaction Chase hit her with a solid left hook. In bar brawls across the country that same left hook had left bigger men reeling on their feet, the girl did move somewhat but it didn’t look like she’d really felt the blow.

However they got the first reaction out of the girl, she stepped into toward Chase and in a flurry of blows knocked him down wheezing. “Jesus H. Christ, what the hell did she do to you boy?” Dan stepped forward to help the younger man to his feet. They both moved backward sharply as the girl continued to approach Chase. “You fucking cunt, no one does that to me.” Chase carried a knife as a matter of course, they all did, you never knew when you might need one now he brought it out of the sheath clipped to his belt and slashed at the girl, the knife clearly sliced across her stomach in a move that would have gutted any other human. The girl instead bled slightly.

Morris stumbled as the weighted cosh that had cause more than one headache missed the girl entirely as she stepped backward under his arm, he quickly tried to grab the girl and hold her but was surprised when firstly she didn’t stay grabbed and secondly when the floor rose up and hit him in the face. Dan silent till this point also waded in.

It should be said that until this point no one was in any real danger, Cleo was indeed trained to kill but she had also been trained to use the correct amount of force for the situation, it was only when Dan pulled his gun that she moved into a true combat mode. For her it was though as if everyone stopped moving, guns hurt she’d had enough fired at her to know that.

Morris who was beginning to get to his feet was seized from behind suddenly and thrown with great force at a wall, the wall made from soft bricks pretty much disintegrated leaving a large hole.

Chase suddenly found the knife he’d been preparing to stab her in the back with plunged between his fourth and fifth ribs, his hand broken.

Dan was further back, but that didn’t save him, his gun hand disappeared into a fine mist of blood, gore and bits of bone. He stared at it in shock for all of a second before the hand that had so delicately removed the gun removed his throat.

~@~

Morris was dreaming about his daughter, he’d fallen asleep somehow he couldn’t recall how or where but he knew it was a dream. Jenny was going out with someone, a boy it was her first prom, she’d looked so cute in the dress his wife had made. The dream was always the same, Jenny went out looking like daddies little girl, he’d been so proud of her then…

It always ended the same too, she’d come home in the middle of the night pissed out of her tiny mind, he’d sat up waiting for her while his wife went to bed. When she had finally arrived home he’d been so angry, having all that time to think what someone might have done to her, someone who liked little girls like her. She’d told him to his face how silly he was, so he showed her what evil people like him liked to do to innocent young girls like her.

Now though she was looking down at him, Morris realised he wasn’t asleep any more, the girl wasn’t Jenny…

~@~

“…so she has been trained to kill and revel in the process, she has a body that is designed to fight and the abilities to carry on fighting until killed.”

“Yes sir.”

“Okay get someone onto this I want the caves under the complex searched and then the surrounding area. From what the Nutty Professor said she’ll have no life skills what so ever and so will most likely be on foot, its still a huge area to search.”

“Yes sir. Anything else?”

“Not at the moment, Ryan but if you can find Jane and send her down I have a new job that she can’t refuse.”

“Very well sir.”

~@~

Cleo liked the taste of blood, and this was the first food he’d eaten in several days, water had not been a real issue as he’d been travelling by a fresh water source but food had been rapidly growing to a major concern. The youngest of the three men had tested rank as had the one with the gun but the old one who had called him Jenny had tasted okay, but was tough. All in all though he had eaten enough to replenish his reserves and wouldn’t now need to eat for a day or two.

She found the highway around noon two days later, the first two vehicles passed her by without stopping, the next a heavy goods vehicle slowed to a halt some two hundred meters in front of her. It sat for a few moments before the driver got out and walked back up the road toward him. “Hello young lady want a ride?”

“Ride?”

“Yeah I have some deliveries in the city I can give you a lift that way if you want.”

“Thank you.”

Dave couldn’t believe his luck not only was she gorgeous but also clueless, pretty… hell girls period shouldn’t get into the trucks of strangers on whim no matter how honest they looked. This one was without doubt one of the best looking, she also seemed to have little modesty, clearly not wearing underwear and the clothes she was wearing while on an adult might have been concealing, on her did quite the opposite.

She didn’t say much, and what she did say seemed to be only after a struggle, he would have guessed her to be foreign or stupid but she didn’t act either way, she obviously understood what he said and listened intently to every thing he did say but that was just about it.

She wasn’t friendly though and while Dave would normally have ignored such in this case he decided not to push into her space. She was good looking it was true but he wasn’t really into young stuff, however he knew a man in the city who would pay highly for someone like this.

~@~

Dennis O’Hanrahan was once an honest man, now though with a wife and mistress to look after he did what was needed to make his cash. He did have a day job Beryl would have walked if he didn’t but after one too many run ins with casino security he knew his days of skimming were over, at least in his current job.

So he made what extra money he could selling services. Mostly it was for rich casino guests who wanted a little something extra to make their stays that bit more enjoyable. Mostly it was drugs, occasionally something cuddly male or female, though most punters knew how to find their own. However he also traded items from his guests to the seamier underside of Las Vegas. He was in short a fixer, while his value to the punters was low, his value to the underbelly of the city was much higher, a casino manager was always useful.

Dave had met Dennis six years ago on his first holiday in Vegas, they’d had a drink together in a brothel and unusually for both men had retained contact thereafter. Indeed Dave made a fair old profit running contraband to Dennis. If anyone knew where to sell a young teen for profit Dave knew Dennis would.

~@~

Cleo wasn’t a big fan of the lorry, he didn’t like the stale sweaty smell that exuded from the unwashed clothing in the back compartment where he had spent the last seven hours, the man was okay though mainly ignoring him or asking apparently meaningless questions. Many Cleo didn’t know how to answer; was anyone looking for him? He had no way of knowing that, he didn’t think so, but then he wasn’t sure what the mission parameters were anymore.

When the engine noise finally died away, Dave as the man called himself said that Cleo could stay in the cab a bit longer if he wanted and he, Dave, would go and find him somewhere to stay, where food could be got and maybe some recreation.

~@~

Dave still couldn’t quite believe his luck, he’d picked up a girl who was almost certainly a runaway, she said no-one would be looking for her, and the police band had been entirely silent, on requests for missing girls anyway. He’d already phoned Dennis from the suburbs at his last drop to let him know of the guest.

~@~

Dave wrongly assuming that Cleo now trusted him led her quietly into madam Hoo’s office, though perhaps office wasn’t quite the word he’d have used. The formidable lady herself was a late sixties oriental with a piercing cold stare and six inch manicured talons. She sat behind a wide mahogany desk in a red silk robe, behind her on a king-size bed a small girl played with another child of indeterminate gender, both children were fully clothed and also oriental.

The other occupant of the room was a large fat black man in grubby medical whites, Dr. Nathan Collins once a respected family doctor and now an almost slave of Madam Hoo.

“Why Dennis what an unexpected pleasure.” Madam Hoo’s accent was a cultured middle English.

“The pleasure is all mine Madam Hoo.”

“And what do I owe the pleasure of this visit on?”

“A friend and I came upon some potential merchandise, we were hoping that your company might be able to purchase it from us and put it to good use so to speak.”

“Is this the merchandise here?”

“Yes.”

“Very well, doctor if you will take her and give her an examination, just to check she is of good qua… Uh of good health. Young lady if you will follow the doctor he will give you a brief examination.” The doctor and Cleo both left the room.

“So gentlemen who is she and how much do you want?”

“She’s a runaway I picked up about 400 miles away up in the mountains, she was partially dressed in what she is wearing now and there was some dried blood on her skin… I got talking with her on the way here she’s run away from an abusive home… not sexually… in fact she seems a bit innocent.”

“And her hair why is it so short?”

“I didn’t ask.”

“Very well I will give you five now assuming the doctors report is favourable, then a further five when I sell her on… is that good enough?”

“Very fair Madam.”

~@~

“Young lady if you’ll take your clothes off please.” Cleo stripped with no sign of modesty and stood naked with his hands at his side, Nathan was rather surprised in the years he had done these sort of examinations it wasn’t unusual that the child would have to be sedated before any sort of intimate exam, this pretty girl seemed not only to have no modesty but was also far more obedient than was good for her… he almost wished he could let her go before she began to entertain Madam Hoo’s guests.

Cleo did what ever the doctor asked her to, just as her implied years of training had taught her. The fact that he was far more gentle than any of the previous doctors didn’t go unnoticed to Cleo, if he’d ever learnt any social niceties he might have said thank you.

After a quick but thorough examination Nathan could confirm that the girl was a virgin and had no scars or identifying features, a blood sample placed into a gadget on his desk returned the important details quickly, the girl was suffering from no communicable diseases. The only odd result was the apparent sound of an extra heartbeat almost an echo, the pulse was also a little too fast, but Nathan from long experience put both of these facts down to fear, conveniently forgetting that the girl hadn’t actually shown any signs of fear yet.

~@~

“Hi I’m Special Investigator Ryan Chandler, I believe you might have some information for me?”

…

“And who am I speaking to?”

…

“Sheriff O’Hutton, okay, can you tell me what you found?”

…

“Hmm, do you have any identity for these bodies?”

…

“Okay so they were all wanted men, guess they got what they deserved. Odd?”

…

“Could it have been an animal?”

…

“Hmm…”

…

“Okay that’s very interesting, can you stay on the line my assistant will get further details from you, I guess I’d better come over…”

…

“Hmm okay well can you forward the reports to me please.”

…

“Sure my assistant will give you the details. Thanks for the call.

~@~

“Hunter looks like that just about wraps that up.”

“Good, now I’m in town for another two days, you need anything call, okay?”

“Sure, but what can go wrong?”

“Don’t tempt fate son.”

“So you work for MCO now?”

“Nope, wouldn’t work for those slimy bastards if it was the last thing.”

“But it says on your card…”

“Okay my boss is FBI, but he gets his commands from MCO. But mostly I work for Homeland Security, I monitor legit mutants who aren’t breaking any laws but are foreign nationals, MCO wants me to keep tabs on them, HS wants me to keep tabs on them and the FBI want me…”

“To keep tabs on them, right?”

“Right.”

“So who was running this job?”

“This job was a favour to an old contact in the Russian secret service, one of their assets started winning more than he should I needed to be here to make sure that when the FBI arrested him prior to deportation nothing untoward happened. Now I get a vacation, and my losses get picked up by the Russians.”

“Nice.”

“It is indeed.”

~@~

The room that the woman led Cleo to was a dingy six by eight foot cell with only a tiny window high up in one wall, a dirty mattress was its only furniture. Cleo didn’t know what the smell was of but he didn’t much care for it. The nice doctor had gone as had the truck driver and the truck driver’s friend. The woman who Madam Hoo had called was also oriental but there the similarity ended. Madam Hoo might look a little sharp and cold this woman looked old and tired, her skin exuded a bitter tang that made Cleo uneasy.

“You sleep here, doctor say you clean, we find playmate for you.” Cleo didn’t answer which seemed to puzzle the woman, “You brave girl? You think I let you go if you good? Tell you now you leave when you have paid debt off.” She laughed at some private joke. “You want me to tell you about your debt? How much you owe to Madam Hoo?” With still no response she cocked her hand back and slapped Cleo… or tried, Cleo read the intended move and in a lightening fast move blocked the slap. “You shouldn’t have done that bitch.” The woman turned and left the room slamming and locking the door behind her. Cleo remained standing for a moment before sitting yoga style on the bare floor.

~@~

Yoga was one of the many eastern disciplines Cleo learnt as part of his training, he didn’t follow a single school, he was trained to understand that different people fought in different ways, some styles were better for some types of battles others for others. Yoga was used to focus and in his training intense periods of Yoga like trances were used to help order the students mind.

Thus whenever Cleo wasn’t tired but was at a loss for something to do he returned to the simple Yoga meditation.

This period of rest was interrupted by the door opening once more, Cleo rose smoothly to his feet and met the eyes of a white man. The man to Cleo’s trained eyes was a fighter though with his huge build probably not well trained. Behind him stood a much slimmer man this one Cleo eyed up with more care, still not even slightly in Cleo’s league this one bore watching as he looked to be the more able.

With the two was the same woman as before. “There she is, the Madam wants her in room twelve.” The larger man reached for Cleo his intent clear in his eyes, however he was stopped by the slim man.

“Nathan, stop.”

“What?”

“Young lady if you will accompany my friend and I we will take you to a more comfortable room.”

“Walt you have to be…” But Cleo followed the small man’s gesture without protest, leaving Nathan gaping in amazement.

The interior of the building was clearly divided into two parts, one part was much as Cleo had already seen, dingy and well used the other, that the two men escorted him to was entirely different. The carpet on the floor cushioned Cleo’s still bare feet feeling extremely nice, while the walls and ceiling were obviously covered in high quality paints and papers.

The first room that the men led him to contained another oriental woman, she also looked tired and ill used, this woman after measuring Cleo handed him several items of clothing and helped him dress. She also told his escorts that the child needed washing. After handing him a further pile of clothing to wear after washing Cleo was further escorted to another room where he could wash and redress.

The first items of clothing that Cleo had been given were not too dissimilar to the clothes he had worn before, though of better quality and construction. They also fit a lot better due to the aforementioned measuring. Consisting of a two piece undergarment, part worn round the chest and part round the waist, both in a soft and comfortable white fabric. The remainder was a pair of pants and jumper.

After the shower however Cleo had far more interesting garb, it still contained the under garments, though these where less comfortable and more flimsy, covering less flesh had Walt not insisted that he wear them Cleo would have not bothered himself. On his legs he wore some pants in black that were skin tight, they came down to his ankle. Over this he wore a cone or woven yellow material, it covered just the top of his legs.

A garment of similar material to the pants was worn over the thing that wrapped around his chest, this was also in black and left most of his midriff bare. The shoes were odd in shape and built up at the back making the first few steps awkward until Cleo figured out how to walk in the safely.

~@~

Madam Hoo’s Wine Bar had been open for about thirty minutes when Cleo was escorted by his two minders into a small glass walled room, in the room sat several other people mostly, Cleo noticed, young and female. Some looked vaguely worried while others who were obviously used to the place looked bored.

After Walt and Nathan left Cleo looked with some curiosity through the glass wall into the main room, while dimly lit and for most humans not easy to see into. The room being setup to make it easier for clients to view the Toys. Cleo had little difficulty seeing into the main room.

A counter along one wall had several young females , these served drinks to the mainly middle aged males who leant or sat next to it. The floor of the room had a few small tables and chairs, while the remaining walls were occupied by semi private booths. The room and eleven men of various ages sitting around. A further six young females took drinks from the counter and delivered them to the tables that were already occupied.

~@~

Over the course of the next three hours several of the girls in the room with Cleo left and went to join men in the main room, some did so slowly with evident fear while others appeared to relish the prospect. Drinks were provided twice for the occupants of the room, both times a mixture of ethanol and water.

Cleo able to see clearly into the main room had seen several of the men speak to the wandering girls and then point at him, but each time the questioned girl would shake her head and the man would either sit down or point at a different occupant of the room. After three hours of light meditive snooze Cleo was woken by a girl who took him from the room.

~@~

Anna had worked at madam Hoo’s for three years, her family while not Chinese were well known within the shadier sides of the underworld in Las Vegas, while it meant that she was safe from exploitation as a Toy in this establishment she still needed to work hard to earn her way.

She did make a bit on the side now and then, clients occasionally wanted a friendly face in their games, and Anna was well able to partake in some of the kinkier games the Toys played. She knew that the girl she led out into the bar area was a new acquisition, she rather suspected that the girl was under age, but that wasn’t so unusual, she at least looked like she might be over 18.

The man she was bringing they Toy to was well known in the place, he arrived only once a month or so and only when a sacrificial virgin awaited in the Toy box. In a way she rather hoped that the girl would survive her encounter but in her heart knew this wouldn’t happen.

“Your Toy sir.”

“Thank you Anna, if you could get her a drink please.”

“Certainly sir.”

~@~

The man known in five continents as the Anansi, was no more than a shyster… super powered true but no more an African than Cleo was. His claim to infamy was a rap sheet longer than the flight to the moon and back at apogee. Mostly for crimes that in several of the places he was wanted warranted a shoot on sight policy.

While less well known, it was known that he enjoyed carnal relations with underage males and females, they sadly seldom survived the process. For all that he presented himself as a friendly person and with a naturally sunny disposition he had lured many into his deadly web.

His mutant powers were mainly to do with speed and fighting skill, and in his youth he had been a UN Peacekeeper in Mali, once bitten by whatever radioactive beastie had given him his powers his body had changed to what it was now… daly mutation from any source has little bearing on morals and someone who in the military had been a bit of a lad, soon became something much worse.

Now thirty years later Anansi no longer even though of himself as a fighter, his ostensible reality was that of a mob king pin, he didn’t own anything in Las Vegas, nor did he much want to but those he thought of as his equals did and he needed to meet them here now and then… Madam Hoo’s was where he went for relaxation after business was done. The girl he was leading to a private room now would be really enjoyable and untraced…

~@~

“So Toy, we’re going to have some fun… well it’ll be fun for me.” Cleo said nothing merely looked toward the large man who had led her into the bedroom. “Quiet one huh. What’s your name Toy?”

“Cleo.”

“Well Toy Cleo, I’m called Anansi, and I’m going to enjoy making you talk… well beg and scream mostly.” With that Anansi moved closer to the girl and told her to undress him, Cleo for his part not understanding anything of what was going on began to comply…

“With your teeth Toy.” Cleo looked confused and carried on undressing the man with his fingers… “I said you your teeth Toy.” Anansi gave Cleo a gentle slap on the face that a normal child would have been left reeling by, Cleo though knocked sideways by the blow didn’t even consider his next move.

Anansi had had mutant kids before, and while this girl was undoubtedly quick he wasn’t worried. He too leapt across the room before slapping the girl again, she however dodged this blow with some ease.

Cleo wasn’t worried yet, though the man was much bigger he was also slow, however the size of the room made getting away from his greater reach difficult. His next blow landed glancing off his left shoulder, Cleo crashed into a wall, bounced and was up again, straight into a bear hug. The man leered down at him before licking his face. Cleo was stunned by this, the disparity of the attack actions and this worried him, was the man insane? His training meant that he considered insane people far more dangerous than the sane, insane people did things oddly and couldn’t be relied on to do the right thing.

Anansi was enjoying himself, right until the girl wriggled from his hug and launched a stunningly fast attack at his right side, he felt his skin tear and roaring in pain Anansi tried to fend off the girl. Now his bulk played against him, the bed got in his way and he tripped backward over it.

The girl came at him again and he returned the attack, landing four hefty blows that dazed the girl and flung her into a wall. Cleo made no more sound than a grunt o impact immediately returned to the attack. But while he was still faster and more skilled than the man his blows when they landed knocked him all over. The blows didn’t hurt, or did but Cleo was quite capable of ignoring pain. However Cleo knew combat and while he didn’t think that the man could defeat him he also didn’t feel confidant that he could win.

Anansi too realised that this fight was a stalemate, he was pissed off now and began calling for help. Nathan came through the door and grabbed that Cleo, Cleo punched a hole through his chest with her left hand while dodging the net thrown by Walt. With the minder so casually destroyed or seriously injured the game plan went to pot. Madam Hoo’s wasn’t setup for the containment of mutants, and fight in Cleo rapidly turned to flight and he tried to flee.

Not knowing the layout of the building he soon became trapped in a sub basement that was sealed by his pursuers moments later. The room was hot and dark, machinery though present was of indeterminate function and currently non-functioning. Cleo rested and after realising that all the exits were blocked waited in a meditate trance to see what would happen next.

~@~

Anansi was adamant that he get another chance at the bitch, he was only slightly injured and his innate regenerative ability was already fixing the damage, armed and armoured he knew he was more than a match for the girl. Walt would be on hand to help as would another super powered assistant. The girl was fast but not overly powerful.

Together they entered the room, she came at them hard, knocking down the hired hand first and ripping the cheat plate off his armour. A blow from the gauntleted fist of Anansi sent her crashing into the concrete wall, she bounced and once again entered the fray.

~@~

Cleo knew he was losing, all three were mutants, they were all quicker than baselines, and with their armour he couldn’t do enough damage to incapacitate them long enough for escape. All were injured now but even then he knew he had lost.

Cleo had one remaining option, in his head there was a gland, baselines didn’t have this gland, most of humanity didn’t have this gland. The gland was the reason for his existence and given the right thought would change the outcome of the battle. Of course it had a down side, after use Cleo would be left drained and in shock for several hours, if in that time he couldn’t make good his escape he would be dead.

Glanding Blood Hype, changed the battle, only Walt survived the ensuing three minutes and only by chance. Cleo suddenly became stronger than mere moments before, all his abilities boosted by five hundred or more percent. A wave of her hand decapitated the hired muscle and a kick that would normally have folded a man in half destroyed most of Anansi’s waist and severed both legs, something even his mutant ability had no chance of repairing.

~@~

Cleo watched the woman carefully, she didn’t seem to be a threat but since leaving the complex he was no longer sure who was and who wasn’t. Some had been normal, even that doctor, some who he would have thought would be normal were nasty. Some even gave him a strange feeling in his heart and groin. This one though was not acting in any of the ways he had been taught people acted, she was just crouching looking at Cleo but with no threat in body language or the eyes.

~@~

Jenny Campion wasn’t sure what she had found in the alley, it wasn’t as she had first thought a hurt child, though by appearances it wasn’t so old. It wasn’t clothed too well leggings and crop top with the fringe of a skirt, blood crusted its hands and matted it’s front. The hair was uniformly short, while dressed a little provocatively, Jenny thought, for one so young it did seem to suit the clothes.

~@~

Cleo was assessing the figure in front of him, he wasn’t sure after the blood hype high if he could escape should the need arise, and in his current state he knew that combat was not possible. The people from the place he had been attacked in were still looking for him, he could hear them in the distance, gradually drawing closer. The alley was dark but dawn was only hours away and soon this hiding spot would reveal him.

~@~

Some kafuffle had drawn Jenny out onto the streets, she didn’t generally work away from home, the local Hero Team however didn’t seem willing to respond, and her vows didn’t allow her to ignore the sounds of distress echoing on the mental plane. They had led to the alley shortly before ending, now the figure in front of her was psychically null. She could feel other presences gathering toward the alley though. The black of death and red of anger and blood an overwhelming signature. They could be police or even MCO but Jenny would have bet her last penny on underworld hoodlums.

Once long ago Jenny had met similar types while being exposed and vulnerable, she didn’t know if the child was their target but she figured it was likely. Now however Jenny was no mere weakling, thirty years ago she had ended the torment of the wielder of the Bane Blade, now it was her own penance. As the first of the mental signatures turned the corner into the alley Jenny pulled the Blade from it’s null space scabbard.

~@~

Walt was something of a oddity to his employers, normally they only employed other Chinese in positions of authority, Walt while having a distinctly oriental look about him was of a Malay extraction, though as he had never met his father he only knew that.

He’d actually done alright for himself, for nigh on twenty years he’d lived with an elderly man who had taught him everything he knew, and with the man being a master of nine different martial arts Walt was soon one of the best. It didn’t last though, after leaving high school he went to state university and did well but shortly after his twenty first birthday his adopted father was murdered by hoodlums from a local gang.

Walt set out with the best intentions, to hunt down those responsible for his loved one’s death. Of course by the end of his search he was as bad as those who had hurt him. But by now Walt was too lost to understand this. Posing as a Chinese gang member he had used his intelligence to rise quickly through the ranks of first San Francisco’s underworld and then more recently through the underworld of Las Vegas.

Madam Hoo’s brothel was one of those places that all underworlds have, Walt had worked there as security on and off since arriving in Vegas, he’d also used the facilities there on numerous occasions. Normally prostitutes that caused a scene would be disposed of in the building, but it wasn’t the first time that some kid had run first. Walt knew most of the hiding places within half a mile of the place.

~@~

The first thing Walt saw as he rounded the corner into the alley that ran along the back of Flower Avenue was a tall shapely woman. Her face partially hidden by a mask. There are not many baselines that can go up against mutants, but with the right training they can. Walt had been training for this moment since the age of five, he’d bested other mutants. Unlike many other street warriors Walt respected mutants, but he wasn’t scared, if this woman got in his way he’d beat her and still finish off the escapee.

The second thing Walt saw was a glowing sword, it wasn’t a light-sabre like thing but appeared to be a sword with a glowing edge, that appeared to have been drawn from a non-existent scabbard.

Walt was however not alone in his pursuit of the vanished girl. Behind him four more figures appeared. Three were simple thugs, simple in the sense that they used their eyes and lower brains more often than their actual grey matter. To them a shapely spandex clad woman standing in a dark alley was not a threat but prey. These guys were the cannon fodder, they would give Walt time to use his better skills.

The fourth figure was however now closing on the back of the group, this figure was over metre taller than the woman who in turn was taller than most people. Not that it was skinny either it’s shoulders were wider than most doors. This was an obvious mutant. However clad in a massive overcoat few details were apparent.

~@~

Cleo had a good line of sight down the alley even though lying as he was in the spilled rubbish from a broken dumpster he wasn’t visible to the men blocking the end of the alley. With the sight of his pursuers to spur him on however his battered and weakened body began to repair the damage inflicted onto it in the preceding hours. All he needed was time.

Time he might not have.

~@~

Jenny Campion, braced herself for the attack that was running toward her, the first man round the corner had dropped back allowing the three thugs to rush her. Her body in perfect balance two were dead before the third even realised she had attacked. Jenny wasn’t interested in them, simple hired henchmen were ten a penny in the States, MCO might have some pointed questions to ask if they knew she had killed them but as they didn’t know she was here, they weren’t likely to find out.

Goon number three back peddled quickly but died to a slash that would, had the sword been physical, have decapitated him. As it was his heart gave out. Left standing Walt and the big thing at the back faced off against this unexpected adversary. Walt leapt forward diving under the impossibly fast swing of the sword to hammer both feet into the woman’s belly. With an oof noise she fell backwards. Walt’s momentum carried him back to his feet, the woman was also back on her feet, she grinned at him before leaping back past him, her sword only just missing his head as he ducked out of its way.

Goon number four had now arrived at the scene Jenny’s jump ended when her path crossed that of the things fist. This time however the force of both her momentum and the left hook dashed her into a brick wall stunning her. Walt approached slowly hoping that the woman was really stunned not just shamming, while he wasn’t even out of breath he didn’t enjoy fighting people who could kill him so easily. The thing under the coat giggled. Kicking the sword away from the motionless form Walt pulled a pre-filled syringe from his jacket, affixed a needle and prepared to inject the motionless form with the toxin.

A grunt from the still giggling thing under the coat and an abrupt cessation of sound from it caused him to turn round. The thing toppled over slowly to reveal another woman, this one also clad in spandex though now blue and white, a long faintly glowing blade extended from each fist.

Walt decided that the odds were now against him, and tried to flee. But found his path blocked by an invisible wall, in all directions a transparent wall impeded his movement. Caged he waited his fate.

~@~

“About time you showed up, where were you?”

“I told you I was going for a run, I was too far off to just appear by your side, its not like I can warp like Mary.”

“So what did you do to him?”

“Nothing to do with me I assumed it was some defence thing but he doesn’t seem to be able to move. Try the sword on it?”

“Hmm nothing, she can normally cut through or disrupt force fields.”

“So if we didn’t cage him and he didn’t cage himself… who did?”

“The kid maybe… in that rubbish there, young girl looks in a bad way…”

“Shit lets…”

“Be careful, he’s been used and badly looking at the blood if he decides to do what ever he did to him to us we might be still here when the cops finally show up.”

“Hmm good point, four heart attacks in one spot will look a little suspicious.”

“You could try telling Mother that but I bet she thinks it was a good idea.”

“She normally is right.”

“Well she is a goddess, I expect her to be right.”

“True.”

“Hey kid you okay? Need a hand?”

~@~

Cleo had learnt some things since escaping the complex below the mountains, besides with his last act he had no strength left to avoid what ever fate these two might lead him too. On the other hand they hadn’t threatened him directly yet so maybe…

~@~

“I think she fainted.”

“Looks that way… and oh look whatever was holding that goon has gone, do you think he’ll bring backup?”

“Possibly either way lets get back to the hotel, we can clean him up there and I’m sure Mother will explain why she needed our help with a shield like that.”

“Mother! Explain! Ha!”

“You could be right but still… she doesn’t weigh much poor kid, what do you think happened to her?”

“Well those goons looked mafia or yakuza or something to me, I’m guessing he escaped from them, though with all the blood looks like she only just managed it.”

“Mutant though, with a force field that even baby can’t scratch, should have tried your claws on it.”

“If your baby can’t do it they won’t, she’s the real deal these are just… well you know.”

“Yeah, look dawn is only an hour or so away, I’ll fly him back you can come in the front door like a good baseline…”

“What in this outfit?”

“Convention?”

“Don’t think that’ll work again do you?”

“Nigel’s a good chap but I doubt even he can cover that up, besides I think he only comes on duty at nine or something.”

“True, okay run back and try and sneak in, I’ll fly anyway, either that or we’ll have to go to ground somewhere until Nigel does appear.”

“Okay see you shortly.”

~@~

When Cleo became awake again he was lying on a soft cloth surface, steady breathing of another person, the distant hum of both traffic and conversation could all be heard. He wasn’t sure what his status was. So in order to prepare his reserves he began the self diagnostic routine he’d learnt way back in training.

Blood Hype always caused his reserves to be drastically depleted and last night’s events, as ascertained by his internal body clock, had been no exception. First order of business was liquid to start replaceing the fluid he’d lost then food. Neither could wait long and if he was once again captive he knew that he’d need to be very careful with any fighting or escape. This time though he knew not to be so trusting, trusting the wrong people last time had almost led to his termination, something he was trained to resist to his fullest limits.

After listening to the breathing for several minutes he decided that the person was probably asleep, so sat up and looked around. The room wasn’t that large yet contained two beds, one occupied by himself the other occupied by one of the women from the alley last night. Finding no further detail from his memories of the event beyond them approaching him, he couldn’t tell if was once again captive or these were not enemies.

The room contained little else, one wall was all window and the view let him know he was a long way up, the fall might not be fatal however with his reserves so dangerously low he couldn’t risk escape in that direction. Facing back into the room to his left was a long mirror covering most of the wall, the other side of the room was unadorned and the side facing the window had a small painting and the door.

The door was not locked and led into a passage that had a bathroom at one end, the sound of voices was slightly louder here and seemed to come from the opposite end of the passage. Cleo stepped into the bathroom and after testing the quality of the water began to drink.

~@~

Molly woke with a full bladder and while her powers might mean she could take a kick that would leave most people seriously injured her powers did nothing for her recollection. Leaving her bed she didn’t even think about the young girl who had been asleep in her sisters bed when she had gone to sleep. Instead she dashed into the bathroom, plonked herself down onto the toilet and let go… it was at that point she realised she had an audience.

Some things it is said wait for no man, in this case once she had started there was no stopping. Nor did the full body blush help. Molly was clothed, she had long since learned that as a hand maiden of her goddess sleeping nude only led to embarrassment, her guest was also clothed in the clothes they had found her in, though somewhat cleaned of the gore.

“Good morning young lady.” She managed in the end, but the girl just crouched there. “Um I’m Molly, you’re safe here, did you sleep okay?” The girl seemed o think about it then she nodded. “We cleaned you up last night… well early this morning really and Jenny, that’s my sister, thought we ought to let you sleep, so she slept on the couch and you got her bed, um sorry if you wanted some privacy… I forgot you were here to be truthful… Don’t say much do you?” This time the girl shook her head before once more drinking in long gulps from the tap.

“I don’t think that’s drinking water, it might have bugs in it.” Having risen from the toilet after discreetly wiping Molly walked past the girl and out into the corridor leading to the rest of the suite, “Look how about I get you a real drink in a glass from the kitchen.” The girl nodded and stood to follow.

~@~

Cleo couldn’t quite work it out but figured he was safe for now…

More hopefully soon… (or not).