Beware of Dog

Beware of Dog
By Shaine and Shatterclaw. Individual rating: PG for language.

Shaine woke to see a raven - the one with the silver streak over its eye - standing on the clock next to her bed. It cawed at her.

"Ugh... 'S too early..."

The raven followed her into the bathroom. "You're as bad as that damned Boomer," she muttered.

"Caw! Caw!"

"Don't like that word, huh?" The raven flapped its wings. "Boomer, Boomer...Boomer, Boomer!" Shaine sang.

It flapped its wings, then flew out. Shaine shut the door behind it, then started washing her face. The bathroom was rather large, with fresh towels, soap, a toothbrush...everything she would need. Once she left it, she found clothes in the closet. They fit rather well.

The raven was sitting on her bed. "Caw!" She yawned.

There was a knock on the door...Bell. "Hi, um...breakfast is ready if you're hungry."

"No, not really."

"Oh. Okay. There's a meeting at 11, then weapons check at 12. Crimson would like you at both."

"All right."

"Cool. See you there?"

Shaine closed the door again once Belladonna was gone, then turned on the TV. The raven sat next to her and stared intently as she began channel surfing.

Space Ghost was on. She smiled.

"When I was a larvaaaae, I wanted to be the ALL-POWERFUL RULER OF THE UNIVERSE!!!"

The raven tried to eat the image of Zorak.

"Me, too!"

"And to have some gum."

"Zorak...do you even know what gum is?"

"Mmmm...no. But I want some!"

It was getting late. She turned the TV off and went out, leaving the raven cawing angrily on her bed.

As Shaine entered the meeting room, she saw Belladonna and Saki, along with a few others she didn't recognize. Crimson walked over to his seat and banged a gavel on the wooden stand before him.

"Everyone have a seat."

"Okay, first I'd like to introduce you to our new member, Shaine. She'll be the comm officer this trip out. On my left is Jinks, a founding member and our tech, also Belladonna's mother. Next to Jinks is Hugo, our pilot for today. Next to Hugo is Vicki. You know Saki and Bell. Next to Saki is Rai. He'll be flying Raven Two. Next to him is Sprocket. Now, the reason I have called you here. Tonight at 10:30 a plane with fifty Dobermans is coming to O'Hare...on active status."

All of them reacted in some way...except Shaine, who just sat there stiffly.

"We are going to try to blow up the plane and then see what comes out. If we're lucky, we'll nail them. If not, we go in."

"What about deactivation codes?" Vicki asked.

"There are none." All of them stared at Shaine.

"What? How do they plan on controlling them?"

"This is Genom," Rai said. "They don't care."

"Okay," Crimson said. "We'll need heavy armor, and weapons. All of you need to check out your gear. Anything else?"

"Motoslaves?" Hugo asked.

"Yes, five. We'll need all the help we can get."

"What about calling in some favors from the ADP?" That was Vicki again.

"Negative. Whatever our friends over there owe us, would never cover this. We are it, people, if worse comes to worst we go to Plan Z but until then we have work to do."

///

The trip to O'Hare went by quickly. The Wings hovered, searching for the plane, as Shaine picked out a very familiar car.

"Over there," she whispered.

Hugo looked and flipped some controls. "Thanks." He fired one of the Wing's guns, drawing a raven insignia on the top of Erik's car.

"Good evening, Bird of Prey, this is your captain speaking. Prepare to disembark."

"We've got heating readings, Number One, will you double check?"

"Roger, we have humans on the plane. Repeat, we have humans on the plane with the Boomers."

"Okay, group. Change of plans. We have to get the humans out of there first. Shaine, get to work masking us and jamming their comms."

"I'm on it."

"Keep your eyes peeled for news crews...I don't like having my picture taken."

"Okay, get ready!" The ones armed with pulse guns went first. Shaine followed as they jumped onto the plane.

Vicki cut open a hole in the top, climbed through, then motioned for the rest to join her. Inside were fifty or sixty passengers, sleeping.

"Shaine, scan for emotions."

"I've got something. It's bouncing back and forth."

"Jam it, whatever it is, and we can lock and analyze it later. Jinks, Bell, check the passengers. Everyone else down to the hold." It was empty. "Damn it!"

"Um, Boss?" Jinks said. "Do Dobermans have fusion?"

Crimson looked at Shaine. "None that I know of."

"Get out, we've got an unknown up here."

Shaine heard a growling noise above her. "Look out!" She threw herself out of the way as a hardsuit broke through the ceiling. After the hardsuit came a creature which appeared to be a Doberman in human skin. The skin was ripping away from its body...

Shaine drew her laser sword and ripped through its shoulder. The Boomer reared its still flesh-covered head, the false skin pulled tight and the true face beneath struggling to break free.

"Get the core! Jinks, Bell, Sprocket, get out. Everyone else put this one down."

The Boomer tried to fire at them, but the beam went wide and tore open the side of the plane. It turned its back to them, growing larger. Shaine used her sword again, leaving its head to hang by one artificial tendon. She saw a beam from an EMP gun hit the body, which then stopped moving.

"Let's move." On the way back to the Wing, Crimson beheaded another of the humans. Once there, Hugo fired the Wing's weapons and the plane exploded.

///

"What in hell..." The Genom employees quickly shut up as they saw the growing tension on Carter's face. "Erik."

"Calm down, Vicky. Send in the rest, and we'll have a nice Raven pie for dinner...whoops, that's 'blackbirds' in the nursery rhyme, isn't it? Ah, well..."

///

"Shaine, what happened to the core?"

"I didn't see one."

"Have you ever heard of a Boomer without a core?"

"No."

"Is it possible?"

Shaine glared up at him. "I left Genom five years ago, and even then I didn't know all that they could do. I have no idea of what they're capable of now."

"True," Crimson prodded, "But the basic working of all Boomers is the same. The core is its mind."

"I'm no hardware expert, Crim."

"We may have a bigger problem. Vicki, find out what the news is saying. Hugo, how long to--"

The plane shook, and there was a tearing of metal. "Shit!"

"Shaine, you're with me. Looks like we have an uninvited guest." Crimson headed for the top hatch...