"I'm so proud of you. You have advanced so far in so little time." Ben beamed at the young woman sitting across from him. "I remember when your uncle brought you in, those early years. You cried a lot and we were all worried you wouldn't be able to control your abilities, but look at you now."
Daisy smiled as she blushed and looked out the hovercar window. "I remember. I was ready to do anything for Uncle Vasily if it meant he wouldn't let them take me back to the white room. I hated the white room."
"Can't say I blame you. That was horrible what they did to you." Ben shook his head as he remembered seeing the unhealed scars on her arms. The daily injections and blood withdrawals had meant her arms looked like Swiss Cheese and had given her a crippling fear of needles. A lot of therapy was needed to heal the mental wounds.
Daisy leaned forwards and rested her hand on his knee. "Don't worry about it, Ben. That was a long time ago. Let's focus on now."
Ben nodded as he glanced out the window at familiar tree cover he had seen many times. "We're almost there. Just another half-mile or so to go."
"He's going to be so surprised." Daisy grinned mightily as she remembered her incredible conquest of the target city. They had retaken Washington DC in record time, finishing in just two days. Unthinkable in most circumstances, but apparently she had developed the ability to fly after her uncle's recovery at the hands of Jason. Her powers seemed deeply linked to her emotional state at any given time.
Ben's smile faded slightly as he thought about her. Without a doubt, Daisy was no match for Jason Hiro. Anyone who could destroy a planet by smashing a huge ball of iron into it was no ordinary foe, to say the least. Hell, it was possible Jason had already reached a level that he could put an end to the demons in an instant with his incredible magic. Yet... he didn't.
Despite this, Daisy was so promising. Her abilities seemed to have no limits as she learned how to master each one that manifested by using Stonewall's special mental training. Ben wasn't sure what that training entailed, but he knew from Stonewall's history in Russian psyops that it had to be quite grueling. No doubt even if she were tortured by the enemy, Daisy would have the mental fortitude to hold out until they killed her.
"I'm still surprised by how efficient you were. Crushing the demons by rolling a massive boulder around was almost comical in retrospect, and from your vantage point in the sky you had the perfect view as you did it."
"My enhanced vision helped too. Being able to tell friend from foe made a huge difference. If our forces had gotten in the way, I wouldn't have been able to live with myself." Daisy giggled as she thought of how easy demons were to deal with in wide open spaces. Perhaps this is why they made their homes in the labyrinth, so that overrunning an enemy would be easy when they had nowhere to flee.
The two rode in relative silence as they rounded the last corner towards her mansion that she called home. The driver of the hovercar spoke up suddenly, a hint of alarm in his voice. "Sir, there are a lot of police lights in the distance."
"Police? Why? That's odd." Ben turned to look out the front window in the distance. Glancing back at Daisy, he shot her a questioning look.
She shrugged nonchalantly, but something in her eyes seemed off. "I can't sense my uncle's presence."
"Can you usually?"
"Yes. Easily, from this distance."
Silver walked downstairs, his plasma pistol in hand as he glanced from side to side warily. Stonewall was a notoriously reclusive man who hated being waited on hand and foot and having a dozen people running around his mansion. Only he, Daisy, and this assistant lived here. She was the cook, maid, letter opener, and everything else. Silver had spoken to her on a few occasions but he wasn't interested in nobodies generally, unless they might witness him murdering a world leader and implicate him directly in the assassination.
Sadly, killing this innocent woman was just part of business. His real employers would send in a cleanup crew afterwards, as they always did.
Walking down the stairs, he turned right and headed back down the long hallway that eventually led to Stonewall's room, but he was aiming for a much closer doorway that led to a very fancy kitchen any five-star chef would dream of cooking in. Before he neared the doorway, he could already hear humming coming from inside as Jessica seemed to be moving around, preparing some unknown meal.
Silently, he crept up to the door, feeling his heartbeat racing as he peeked around the corner. The smell was unmistakable, as she seemed to be preparing some sort of steak, along with macaroni and cheese. Really, mac'n'cheese, of all things? Stonewall was a wealthy man but his food choices were so very peculiar.
Silver gritted his teeth as he pulled back and considered his options. Really, killing this poor girl felt so wrong, and he hated those who hurt women and children needlessly, but there seemed to be no getting around it. She knew he had been here and other than herself, Silver was the only person who would obviously have killed Stonewall.
Shit. No other option, then. Silver took a deep, silent breath, as he quickly popped around the corner, aiming his gun at the back of her chest, the laser reticle pointing straight at her heart.
BLAM BLAM!
Two white-hot bursts of plasma shot out faster than the eye could see, blowing out the front of her chest. She had no wind in her body to scream, as she silently slumped forwards, falling to the ground, her head turning and eyes barely registering his presence.
Silver breathed heavily for a few moments as he stared at the corpse of the woman before him. "Fuck. I'm so sorry, I'll make sure they give you a proper burial, ma'am." Condolences seemed worthless, but he had to do something or the guilt would eat him alive.
Turning away, he walked out of the room quickly, sticking his gun back in his coat. Reaching for his datapad, he quickly activated a holo-call to his assistant. "Come on, Noah, pick up... pick up..."
He felt more nervous than usual, though he didn't know why. As he impatiently rapped his thumb, the signal strength indicator on his datapad changed from five bars to zero, as the display cut off.
"What the hell?" Silver tapped the screen expectantly, but nothing appeared on it. The entire device seemed to be dead.
"That was a close one." A female voice spoke from the direction of the kitchen behind him, causing Silver to whip around in fright, grabbing for his gun as his hands fumbled with it. Before he even knew who had spoken, he had already dropped his gun on the floor.
Blinking at his own idiocy, he glanced up to see Jessica standing a few dozen feet away, her dress shirt torn into pieces and singed where he had shot her, but her body was in otherwise perfect condition.
"Son of a bitch, he had an Enforcer working for him. I should have known. That motherf-" Silver bit his lip as he shot a glance down to his gun, now situated between the both of them. He started to make a move for it, but felt a wave of invisible energy strike him, sending him flying backwards as he landed on his back with a thud.
"I'd rather not die a second time now." Jessica's otherwise demure smile was gone, replaced with a bland expression of boredom.
Silver groaned as he staggered back to his feet. "Two abilities huh? You must be a black level. But I thought Daisy was the only successful female candidate? I should have known that son of a bitch had a secret weapon. No wonder he didn't keep any extra security here."
Jessica stared at Silver for a moment as recognition dawned in her eyes. "Locate." She spoke a single word, though it seemed to ring out and echo around the room in an abnormal manner, as her eyes panned up towards the roof. "I can't find him anymore. You must have killed him." Jessica pivoted her body back to the man who was now wincing and holding his chest in pain.
"You're a real freak. Maybe we had it all wrong. That seemed like a third ability you just used. Perhaps females infused with Type 3 Energy die more often and have ridiculous failure rates, but also get more abilities of a higher grade if they survive. That would explain all of this. He was hoarding female Enforcers the whole time." Silver nodded gleefully as he stared down the lithe young woman across the hall. No wonder Stonewall had made sure to mention his maid. Then when Silver went downstairs to kill her, he'd get killed instead. Revenge from the grave, as it were.
But Silver was no fool. Throwing his hand back into his shirt, he pulled out a ring and slipped it on his finger. Leaping forwards, he raced for his gun as the woman sent another wave of telekinetic energy at him, but this time it vaporized around him, not affecting him at all. Before Jessica could process this information, Silver leveled his gun at her head and fired.
The shot didn't hit. Instead, something seemed to knock it out of the way and it smashed into the wall behind her. Before he had a chance to figure out what had caused this, three figured appeared beside her in the blink of an eye. And all three figures looked the same. They looked just like...
"Jason Hiro?! What the hell are you doing here?!" Silver jerked back, as he stared face to face with three of Jason's clones.
"We're from the JIB. We detected a clone had suffered catastrophic heart failure and healed her immediately. Since you are the one who killed Stonewall, based on what we've been observing, we'll be taking you in for interrogation."
Silver blinked. "What? You can't do this to me!" Before he could say another word, he felt something strike him in the head, as a brick was pulled loose from the ceiling and dropped on him. A few seconds later, he was deep in napping land. One of the male clones walked over and plucked the anti-magic ring off his hand.
"Smart guy, but ultimately just human. Agent X, we've already located Stonewall's body, and the authorities are on the way. He's... irrecoverable. We can't bring him back."
Jessica finally let herself feel a slight tinge of emotions as she plopped to the floor. "Fuck. Daisy is going to be destroyed over this. I failed her and her uncle badly."
"Don't blame yourself. The original had considered killing him anyway, and he had nearly died of nano-cancer as it was. Eventually, death comes for everyone."
Jessica nodded weakly. "Yeah... except for us."
The other clone merely tilted his head away as he considered that fact.
Daisy stepped out of the hovercar, as a feeling of dread washed over her. Something wasn't right at all. If she couldn't sense her uncle, he might be inside the safe room that nullified magic. He might be away on a trip, seeing as he was planning to leave today anyway.
Yes, that had to be it. Daisy quickly walked forwards down the long driveway and past the circular roundabout with a massive fountain in the middle, as several police officers noticed her presence. Two walked up to her, holding their palms up. "Ma'am, I need you to stop right there and identify yourself. This is a crime scene." The female officer spoke as she examined the young woman wearing a military uniform.
"A crime scene? I live here. I'm Daisy Sokolov, my uncle owns this mansion." Daisy glanced past them to the entrance of the mansion as two other officers out of the dozens there quickly brought a sniffer dog in through the front door.
"Daisy Sokolov? I don't have you on my list. I can't let you in yet, even if you are say who you are." The female officer glanced over to her partner.
Daisy wasn't having any of it. With the slightest effort, she shoved them aside with telekinesis as they sprawled on the ground. "I outrank you. Get out of my way."
Marching past, she noted looks of alarm on several officer's faces as they quickly rushed up to stop her. They too fell to the side as she picked up the pace and started jogging towards her front door. By now, all of the officers outside had seen her advance and witnessed the commotion, and several began to draw their firearms.
Daisy was about to lash out and neutralize the lot of them, but a voice rang out from behind her. "STAND DOWN!" Ben had finally caught up with her as he ran up holding his badge high. "I'm the Exalted Commander, Benjamin Brown. All officers stand down and allow us to pass!"
Several officers shot looks of awe as they jerked up stiffly and saluted him. The first two looked at him in embarrassment. "We're so sorry, sir! We didn't know you were coming!"
Nobody did, officers." Ben dismissed them with a wave and he followed behind Daisy as they quickly made their way up the steps. As she walked in the door, Daisy was greeted by a familiar sight as Jessica and Jason were standing off to the side, answering questions an officer was asking.
"Jason! Jessica!" Daisy quickly hopped forwards as she forced a pained smile across her face. "What happened here? What's going on? Nobody's told me a thing. Where's my uncle?"
Jason winced as the barrage of questions pounded into him like a delivery hovertruck doing sixty. "Ah... Daisy. It's good you came home. There was... an attack..."
Daisy blinked. "An attack? What kind of attack?"
Jason winced visibly as he averted his eyes from hers. "It's... well, you see..."
Jessica sighed as she nudged him and took the lead. "Your uncle... he was attacked. Silver attacked him."
Daisy felt her heart skip a beat. "W-where is he? I can't sense him... I can't... sense him..." A sinking feeling took place as she whipped her head around the room, the sound of Jason and Jessica's voice fading away as her heartbeat pounded inside her mind. Several officers were going up and down the staircase which led to the roof. Her uncle must be there.
As Jessica tried to explain what had happened in the softest way possible, she was startled as Daisy suddenly swiveled her head up to the rooftop and leaped into the air towards the doorway. Or, rather, she flew at an alarming speed as she totally ignored what Jessica was saying.
"Wait, no! You don't want to see him like this!" Jessica felt tears form in her eyes as Daisy seemed numb to the words yelled after her.
In an instant, Daisy yanked open the door to the helipad as she rushed forwards and felt her heart stop.
There was a white sheet placed over top of what was unmistakably a body, as several men and women walked around, surveying the scene.
"Uncle... Vasily..." Daisy's lip trembled as she stumbled forwards, ripping the white sheet upwards off the ground with her telekinesis as she gagged in horror at the sight before her.
Her uncle's body was laying on the ground, his head completely destroyed and blown all over the deck, as if it had been targeted with an explosive bullet at point blank range. Daisy ran forwards and knelt down, touching the stiff body of her uncle as several crime lab personnel realized what was going on.
"Miss! You can't be up here! This is a restricted area!" A large man quickly walked over to her, reaching down to grab her arm.
An instant later, he was flung backwards with terrific force as Daisy sent him smashing into the small wall that bordered the entire rooftop, knocking the man out cold.
"Don't touch me! This is m-my uncle!" Daisy screeched and felt her voice crack as hot tears rolled down her face. "Uncle Vasily... Uncle Vasily... Uncle Vasily..."
Several personnel glanced at each other in alarm, not knowing exactly how to proceed. Just then, Jason, Jessica and Ben raced up to the roof, taking in the scene with a single glance. Ben quickly noted the unconscious man who had been smashed against the concrete roof border. "Not good."
"Daisy! I t-tried to tell you..." Jessica walked forwards slowly, approaching the girl slowly from behind.
"Uncle Vasily... Uncle Vasily..." Daisy kept muttering the same two words over and over again as anger and sadness washed over her in waves.
"It's not your fault. I failed to protect him. If you should blame anyone, you should blame-" Jessica started to offer Daisy words of encouragement, but she too was sent flying backwards as a horrible maelstrom started spinning around Daisy.
Jason, the original, blinked as he took in the scene. "Not good. She seems to be losing control of her abilities."
Jessica groaned as she sat up and stared at the young girl in awe. "Stonewall was everything to her. This is..."
Daisy suddenly screamed, causing everyone nearby to flinch back in fear. "WHO DID THIS?! WHO KILLED MY UNCLE?! WHO DID THIS?!"
Jessica started to respond but Daisy kept screaming over and over again. "I'LL KILL HIM! I'LL KILL HIM!"
The maelstrom quickly turned into a small tornado as it spun around her faster and faster. Small objects and large ones began to lift up and fly around her as everyone ran inside for cover, except for her three friends.
"Daisy! You have to calm down! You're losing control!" Jason yelled loudly but his voice was lost as the maelstrom began to emit a deep moaning sound, drowning his voice out completely.
Daisy was clearly still screaming, but she wasn't audible anymore. Ben grabbed hold of the door as he felt himself lifting up. "Stop her! She's going berserk!"
Jason nodded quickly as he aimed his hand at the girl. "Incapaci-"
Just as he spoke the word, Daisy vanished. In the blink of an eye, she disappeared, as if she had never been there in the first place.
A few seconds later, the tornado tapered off and the roof returned to normal as several small and large objects flew off into the distance, landing in various places far from the rooftop.
Jessica stared in disbelief at the spot where she had just been standing. "Where did she go?"
Jason quickly whispered under his breath while Ben wasn't paying attention. "Locate."
Nothing appeared in his mind as he glanced all around the place.
Daisy was completely gone.
Submitted March 01, 2017 at 06:47AM by Klokinator http://ift.tt/2mcND6W
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