Hidden Danger Crouching Cat.
By Shannon Hearn
The characters of Dark Angel are owned by Twentieth Century Fox Television and Cameron Eglee productions. All other characters are of my creation.
The next chapter will deal with the Lady Chimera fallout, and Aspen tries to clear her head from the mess as she tries to get in touch with the spirit world and runs into an old friend of Shadow's.
I would like to thank Shonda for Grammar checking this chapter for me and pointing out some of the inconsistencies in this chapter.
Now on with the story.
***
Chapter 6: The Call is for you, and the surf is up with Mermaids.
The hours after the Eyes Only Broadcast had turned into a nightmare. One of Shadow's unit had gone Eyes Only Cable Hacker and broadcast that she was tempting Logan to contact Shadow and reveal who he was to him. Well, Max would have her hands full the next day at work trying to keep things under control with the two new Transgenic employees of Jam Pony.
"Logan why don't you stick your foot into your mouth already", he thought. This girl, Melfina had some serious talent given what she did in a matter of minutes with what resources she had at her disposal. Either she had experience hacking into communication systems, like Max did when he and Matt Sung got captured by the crime boss Eyes Only was trying to bring down, or Melfina was more talented in some fields of telecommunication hacking than the other Transgenics developed at Manticore. Logan had realized this when he started examining the variety of creatures in the Transgenic community. Some Transgenics had excellent escape and evade skills such as Max while some of the Transgenics had excellent negotiating skills such as Alec did with his Black market back at Manticore. Zack's Leadership; Fixit's mechanical diagnostic skills; Joshua's Tracking skills; Marrow's warped medical training. So, if Melfina had some serious skills at computer infiltration, she could become a very powerful ally for Eyes Only. Given what Max had said about her being almost fearful of Normal people, she was almost borderline paranoid. So earning her trust would take time and patience. Nevertheless, Melfina's link with Max might be his ticket into making her a member of the Informant Net.
"Max," Logan said, "could you have Melfina answer the phone at work, when I make my next broadcast tomorrow morning."
"I'll see what I can do." Max said to Logan as she left his penthouse to head back to her Czech style apartment.
***
Shadow had spent the last few hours just chewing out Melfina for doing what she did with her cable hack. He knew that her computer skills were formable, but after what she had done... Geeze, that would have gotten you tossed into the brig for a month or two, not including solitary confinement in the basement for most of that time. However, what she said had more or less had cut through the bullshit and gotten Shadow a personal seat with the Mighty High and Powerful Eyes Only.
Now how the meeting would take place was a mystery, but he knew that aside from Alec and Max, the two other people that were there when he mentioned his designation was that Blond girl, Asha and that pool shark with the three-day growth of beard, Logan. Therefore, the list of suspects was very short in deed. Aspen was making her prayer to the Sprits for guidance and help for what was to come. Her look of fear and terror pulled at her with a force he had only seen once during the night of the Fire. Aspen was trying to contact the spirits of her existence, and trying to discover why Melfina had done what she had done by sending message to Eyes Only as she did.
"Melfina, how could you do this, geeze? I was meeting with Max and Logan, any way to locate any of our people just might have gone up in smoke." Shadow yelled at the young X6, who was cringing curled up in a ball on the couch away from Shadow. "All that I know about these Transgenics that we bumped into have been trying to round our people up and get them to safety."
"But Shadow, I just was..."
"Mel just stay quite for a second." Shadow said as he rubbed his forehead with one of his hands. "Well, we can't worry about spilt milk. However, you have forced the issue anyways, Now that I know that Eyes Only is involved in this and is probably helping them, or have a connection to them. We just have to wait and see." Shadow looked up to the ceiling, and then moved his gaze towards Jim. "So Jim what were you doing while Mel was hacking satellites, sitting on your hands, sheesh, give me the old days where I was a field medic treating troops in the field."
"You were a field medic?" Aspen said moving away from her shrine with symbols of animals, pseudo humans, Chechnya dolls, and wooden Teki heads.
"Yes, I was. I probably know the pluming of every Transgenic ever cooked up at Manticore other than the Lab geeks that cooked us all up."
"So you know about my capabilities, and what I was designed for?" Melfina said looking at Shadow with wonderment.
"Yes, Mel I know that you are one of the X-Series customs that was cooked up by the lab geeks. Hell I have had encounters with various aquatics, desert and arctic combat troops, a couple Brains, rats, cats, and at least one shocker who still owes me a couple of medical journals and a P.O.D. CD. Shadow said remembering all the patients that he treated in the field and the ton of favors that they still owed him.
"Well, with all luck, we'll be contacted tomorrow." Aspen said as she looked towards Shadow.
***
The next day at Jam Pony Melfina had dealt with Shadow chewing her out and had to use work as an escape. Mel had on a green hooded sweatshirt, and pair of long tight black parachute pants. Added to this assemble was a pair of fingerless gloves similar to the ones that Max and Alec wore. Mel had wanted to show Eyes Only that you did not mess with an X series and get off from making accusations towards them. That was before she realized that Shadow wanted to find the underlying cause of who had attacked command. Mel thought that hanging around Max might cheer her up.
"Uh, Max tells me have you ever had fears about being around humans. I mean while you were out in the world?" Melfina said moving over towards Max very consciously, not knowing that Aspen had told her about the Lady Chimera incident. Well it was until Sketchy announced it to the world.
"Hey did you hear about this Lady Chimera that did an Eyes Only type of cable hack." Sketchy said. "Either Eyes Only has an admirer or someone that wants to replace him. Then suddenly butting in Max added.
"I mean anyone that is part of this X5-424 unit could be a member of the X5's that we heard about last year."
"What do you mean Max?" Melfina said, worried about that she had been discovered as Lady Chimera.
"About a year ago, Eyes Only did this broadcast about a unit called X5, and said that their unit's positions had been compromised. The rest was a mystery to me, but given his tone, it was serious. He only made contact with this unit only on a few occasions but the last time he made contact with them was prior to I left for her heart surgery." The sleek and sexy X5 with an attitude looked at the both of them with questioning. "Hey Mel, what would you say to Lady Chimera, if you got a chance?"
"Um, I'd say what the hell were you thinking when you did the broadcast." Mel said trying not to stutter it out. Then right at that moment there was a cut in on the music video channel that was constantly on at Jam Pony.
"Do not adjust you sets. This cable hack will last exactly sixty seconds, it cannot be stopped, it cannot be traced, and it is the only free voice left in this city. This message is for Lady Chimera and your associates, you will be contacted in relation to the face to face meeting that you wanted with your associates is going to be held. I know about the culture that you were raised in. The follower of the Blue Lady will be your guide to where the meeting will take place. She has been one of my operatives who I have personally met. In addition, she had said, and I quote, "Kiss My Ass", to my face. So Lady Chimera, you were not the only person that has challenged me, but only a few have the skills you do to do a cable hack of my caliber. This is Eyes Only. Peace." The sound of gaps and stutters echoed throughout the offices of Jam Pony. Melfina just stood there, staring at the television screen, just stuttering and staring blankly at the screen.
"Mel, Melfina." Max said as she moved over to look at Melfina trying to figure out why she had shut down as she did so often. When Max got in front of Mel, all that came out of Mel's mouth were the words "Blessed be the Blue Lady," where were almost said in an almost drunken state. Then her eyes rolled up in her head before she fainted. With superhuman speed, Max caught Melfina before she fell on the floor.
"Mel, geeze Mel, I'm sorry." Max said looking towards Cindy and Aspen. "Uh, girls, could you help me here." Max was holding Mel barely up, given her strength; she could easily haul the girl over her shoulder with no problem. However, showing off her superhuman strength in front of her co-workers would be a problem. Quickly Aspen and Cindy had come to her aid and were picking her up and taking her over to the women's restroom. Putting Mel on the floor Max gently patted Melfina's face just to get her to wake up.
"No, not the tank... I'll do what you ask, but I will not go into the Tank again. Eyes Only, I'm sorry about hacking your system." Mel said incoherently, it was as if she was in a dream slash nightmare.
"Aspen, was Mel put into Psych ops, during her stay at Manticore?" Max said directly to Aspen as she tried to bring the young Transgenic back to reality.
"I don't know? Mel was unglued the night that we found her. Given that the fact that she is a bio-cyber, and the strain that she goes through when she jacks into those systems, is probably the reason that she is like this.
"Great, another head case to deal with." Max said, as she started to notice Mel's hair starting to rise by some external force. Then there was a zap which it Max's hand straight on.
"Ow." Max jumped back. "What the... I just got shocked!!!"
"Well, you just found out that Mel has electric eel in her genetic makeup." Aspen said apologizing for the effects that Melfina had just performed. As Max moved back to look at Mel more closely, Melfina's eyes shot open, and a very loud gulp was taken by her.
"Eyes Only knows you doesn't he?" came out of the young X series.
"Yes, he does Mel." Was the reply from Max as she gently put her hand on the Girl's shoulder.
"When do we meet him?" Aspen looked at Max with some very serious intensions.
"After work and one phone call." Max pointed out to the both of them.
***
The day progressed quietly along for the four Transgenics at Jam Pony. The runs were quiet and consistent with the work that had to be done. Mel had to deal with the idea that she had set in motion events that meeting with Eyes Only. Aspen felt that Mel was having a flashback to events that happened to her at Manticore. Some of the events of Mel's past were still a mystery, so probably Eyes Only might have a lead on what the techs did to her when she was part of the Cyber-ops unit. Mel decided to swing by the T-Bloods church and visit with Rain. Somehow, Rain being a Norm that had been transformed into a creature other than human, made Rain seem less menacing to her.
As Melfina rode her bike towards the old Church, her life to that point in time looked like another lifetime ago. Mel remembered the time that she was put into a sensory tank when she was a child, before the Pulse. The idea was to put a series of computer interface points on her hands and in the tank itself to monitor the electrical current that her body produced. Within this submerged environment, she was trained to interface with the electronics around her. The resulting idea was that if a Transgenic could interface into the electronic gear that a modern soldier carried such as his communications radio, his handheld computer with satellite uplink, GPS unit, hell even their CD-player and feed them wrong and misleading data the soldier could be led into an ambush and would not be able to call for help. In the process it give the enemy an information overload at their command center to the point that the commander would not be able to launch an effective counter attack. Hijacking fighter jets, naval frigate, satellites and helicopters were optional mission objective Mel and the other Bio-cybers had done during their lives at Manticore. When the pulse hit, a good chunk of the hardware and the networks that Melfina and the others were developed for were destroyed or disabled by the microscopic power surge that tore through the circuit boards of those systems.
Mel stopped her bike, got off of it, and walked into the church wondering what would Eyes Only be like when she and the others meet with him.
***
"Hey Mel did you hear about this Lady Chimera, I mean anyone who can say up yours to Eyes Only's face has to have some guts." Rain said to Melfina across the table they were eating at. The burger place they were at was simple, one of those hole in the walls that no one knows about except for a select few that know that the food there is the best. The burgers that were cooked to the point where the natural animal fat and the cherry taste to them made your mouth drool at the mere thought of them existing. All if placed onto the sweetest home cooked buttermilk bun that would drive your cholesterol level though the roof. The burger that you would drool over and have dreams about sitting down to and taking an hour to eat in loving care. Don't mind the chips or the fries; they would only be a distraction. The places which every state trooper and cop within a city would religiously go to for the meal of a lifetime.
Mel just stared across the table at Rain. "What???" Mel said drifting back to reality getting worried about her being discovered as being as Lady Chimera.
"Mel, I was talking about Lady Chimera, I mean most of the references that Eyes Only eluded to about know about your people makes me wonder if he knew about Marrow and what he did to me and the other T-Bloods?" Rain said to the X6 attempting to figure out how much she should tell her or jut flat out just attempt to gloss it over.
"Rain, I think that he knew about what Marrow did to you guys. I mean he has operatives in various communities. Heck, he probably knew about Marrow from the Manticore files that he has, it was probably just the sheer number of us out there is probably why he didn't get a chance to stop him when he did show up."
"Well, at least he has a few of his contacts are working to stabilize me and the other T-Bloods physiologies." Rain said looking at Mel with her hair unbraided and laying down the back of her neck. "I know, but I have to live with the decisions that I made for the rest of my life?" Rain said looking back at the day before she met Marrow, and was fully human. The way that Marrow had put it, she needed to be faster and stronger to survive in a world that had gone mad. The preaching that she would be jacked into the "Tribe of the alive" made her fear go away until she met a woman named Max.
When Max had shown her the truth, about what Marrow was and the fact that Max had taken it upon herself to protect her people from harm. Well knowing that you were a person who could throw a seven-foot tall football linebacker through a brick wall and not think a second about it and realize that there were others like Max out there who all they wanted was to live their lives in peace. The idea of being put into the "tribe of the alive" now meant that you had to live by their rules now. From Rain had seen of Mel was that she was just scared of not being able to handle the obligations of living in a world where being jacked up was not a good thing, and your tribe was being hunted by the Men In Black constantly.
"I know Rain, there are some-things that you do wrong that you wish you could take back, but some are lessons that you have to learn the hard way." Melfina said pondering about her future which would be unfolding in the next few hours.
***
The day flowed fast and at six thirty that evening, Max and the gang had completed their runs. Mel and Aspen had to wait for Shadow and Jim to show up at Jam Pony. Since Max and Alec had only encountered Shadow before out side of Melfina and Aspen, Jim was a new addition to the group. Jim's small X8 frame put him into the position of appearing to be a child, but given his age Jim was probably close to the age that of Max and the other '09 escapees were.
Jim's overgrown Blond hair mirrored that of Melfina's. The hair that covered the barcodes on the backs of their necks hid their barcodes from prying eyes. From what she saw, it had done the trick effectively enough. Jim's appearance consisted of long white pants, a red t-shirt and a brown jacket. What had caught Max's attention was that Jim was still wearing Manticore Issue combat boots. The look of coldness but curiosity was in his eyes what shocked her the most. Had she and the other '09s looked like that to the world when they escaped into the outside away from their masters to a better life? Max got that worried look on her face that Jim would have it better than she had it. At least he would have others to be with other than her liven her life in constant fear since she got separated from her sister Johndy the night of the escape.
Now Max looked at the differences that She and Jim had. However, all her questions would be brought to a stop when he spoke.
"So, your Max" Jim said looking right into her face though he was at least a good two feet shorter than she was. "I thought that you were taller given the way that Mel talks about you, I mean she worships the ground that you walk on."
The look of, oh shit, I have a groupie on Max's face made her feel that society she had influenced back at Manticore would become a force to be reckoned with. Though getting through the meeting would be very difficult in the next few hours, Max had figured out that Melfina was Lady Chimera and this sensitivity towards her could make her wonder how dangerous things could get when Shadow and the others discovered that Logan was Eyes Only.
"Jim, I am just a person, not a great person, just a person who made a choice in her life that is linked with you all." Was All Max said as she attempted to force the issue forward and just contact Logan as she made her way to the payphone in the room and placed a call to Logan's cell phone.
"Hey, This is Max, the meeting is on I have Shadow and the others ready, where do we meet?" With those words, the meeting was on.
***
Logan's selection of the meeting place had been an old abandoned office building that had sold computer software. The little Mom and Pop operation had been called Kroager and Scott software. The technology that they had once produced was related to neural-data interface technology, the abilities to run computers by the mind, but they were ten years ahead of the time and the fact when the pulse hit, they had taken a beating and had been forced to sell off their assets. Included in these assets was the technology that led to the development of Logan's Exo-harness and practically every mayor piece of cyber enhancement on the market. Fate is not without a sense of irony, so Logan had taken a tablet computer system with an independent wireless modem and had attached a set of speakers to it. These speakers were modified in such as way that they functioned as speakers for a built in two-way radio. Having a remote archive of the Eyes Only video broadcast that he had kept on file to use as a generic incase he had been punched in the eye or had a facial injury that he could not have shown on television. This type of stored footage would give Logan an alibi when he had to do a broadcast, the file had come in handy when Logan had been captured and had been forced to reveal that he was Eyes Only. Luckily, Max had used the file to make it look like he was doing an impersonation of himself. The stored file would allow Logan some distance as he talked with Shadow and the others.
Logan had the night before had gone through the old Manticore files that Lydecker had given him on the X series and had dug into some of Shadow's, Aspen's and Melfina's pasts. The files on Jim were practically non-existent due to him being so young and most of his file being dedicated to his boot camp training. Logan had loaded just enough information into the system on enough of the X-series that it would protect him from being skewered. Then the vibration on Logan's sleeve had started buzzing on him and he answered it. The meeting was on and they would be there in about thirty minutes.
***
When Shadow and the rest of his unit entered the old office building and moved towards one of the main conference rooms where there was a tablet computer system setup with an IR keyboard with touch pad, a pocket video camera, and externally plugged in speakers. On the screen were the twin scrolling bars of texts for Streaming Freedom Video and between the text were the known eyes of Eyes Only.
Shadow looked around the conference room. The place was simple and quite functional for the purpose it was to be used for and he looked towards Aspen to get her senses on the situation.
"Aspen, what do you sense here?" Shadow said to his fellow X5. Aspen looked around the room and delved into the spirit reality which she was part of. While in the spirit reality she used her senses and her insight to search for anyone else in the building or nearby.
"Shadow I sense that he is here and that he is near by. Probably in the building." Aspen said to Shadow then she moved her gaze to Melfina as the young X6 who walked over to the computer and touched it. Then suddenly the system went bonkers as Melfina delved into the command protocols and searched the drive to backtrack were Eyes Only was broadcasting from. Then Mel took her hand off the computer and moved her hand over to touch the speaker. Melfina tapped the speaker with her hand before she brought it to her mouth and whistled into it as loud as she could. The look on Eyes Only's face by the squint on his face was priceless.
"The speaker is a two way microphone." Melfina said to Shadow as she handed the speaker over to him. "The transmit range of it is probably a few hundred yards. So that places him within the building itself." Then right at that moment right out of the speaker came the words of gritting pain.
"Max, please tell Melfina that I admire her work but please do not let her whistle again into the speaker." Then a moment later he said, "Shadow I will meet with you in a moment, just after I grab an aspirin for the splitting headache that I have now." Then the action on the screen changed as Shadow saw the two-day-old growth of beard that was distinctly Logan's.
The six Transgenics waited a few moments as Logan entered the room taking large slugs of water from a bottle and gently rubbing one of his ears and rolling his jaw around trying to make the ringing stop in his head.
"Well, well, well. The high and mighty Eyes Only." Shadow said with a smug grin on his face.
"I'd thought that he would be bigger from all the hype that I have heard about him." Jim said giving Logan a once over with his eyes.
"Well, great things tend to hide in unsuspecting packages." Logan said in his defense to the young X-series. "Your about the same age that Max was when she escaped from Manticore back in '09." The look on Jim's face was priceless. The realization that somehow that some of the troubles and feelings that he was having were close to what the Transgenics who had left Manticore on their renegade mission for freedom. This now meant that he had to cope that Max knew what might be some of the problems, which would arise with him in the months and years to come.
"So fill us in on what you know about the renegade Ops that were run at Manticore?" Shadow said moving towards Logan with concern and deliberate worry about what would happen next.
"Several months ago prior to me running the story that exposed Manticore, Colonel Lydecker came to me after he learned that Madam X herself Elizabeth Renfro was performing illegal operations such as taking Transgenics and carving them up for lab analysis and spare parts. The only way that I found out about it was when Max's brother Zach had found out where Tinga, another one of the '09 escapees had this done to her and max was captured by Lydecker, a major shift occurred. Lydecker was appalled by the actions taken without his orders and the fact that his "kids" were being needlessly being sacrificed for reasons they should have been. That is when Lydecker contacted me and we formed an alliance to take Manticore down. First we had to prove that it existed, second prove the facts for the illegal operations that had been performed without his knowledge under his watch." Logan paused for a moment to remember how the mission had gone badly. "Except the mission gone bad and to buy time for us to dig up information about the complex, we had to blow the genetics lab with all the DNA material on final for all of you guys, the explosion worked well expect that Max and her brother Zach were captured during their pull out of the complex. And for the months afterwards me and Lydecker had to work with the resources that we had to expose Manticore with the hard evidence to tell that it existed, this way we could get an oversight committee to look over Manticore's mission books."
"But Renfro put a stop to that when she set the fire to the compound and had the staff start shooting at any of the Transgenics that would have gotten out." Max added as she put forward what she knew. "That is why I overrode the security lookouts that were keeping everyone in their rooms and their barracks the night of the fire. I had to get everyone out. Then twenty-four hours later, I had to stop a renegade NSA agent named Ames White from completing Renfro's mission of scorched earth by killing how many Transgenics he could get his hands on by using the command bird from which we received our filed orders from." Max added to the conversation looking over towards Shadow. "Me and Alec and a few X6s were able to foil that plan from White and get everyone to go to ground so that if White cannot find us, the more safer we are from being hunted down by him."
"So that is the reason why you were so pissed at us for doing our little search for others of our kind. You were afraid that our activities would be picked up by this "White" dude and we be killed over it." Melfina had piped in using some of the jargon that she had picked up from Original Cindy and Rain.
"That is pretty much the sum of it, but we have recently learned the White is not working for his U.S. Government employers, but he is working from some group/cult called the Familiars who see us a problem for their plans of world domination, or something like that." Max added to the conversation
"So Alec, how the heck did you wind up with these two. You must be running some scam on them?" Shadow added to his former teammate.
"No, the main reason that I am hanging with these two is that one, Renfro ordered me to be Max's breeding partner so that I could get close to Eyes Only and blow his brains out of existence, two when plan one failed I had to save everyone else ass from being killed by White and his Transgenic murder-death squad." Alec paused for a moment as he considered how to proceed to go without embarrassing himself more. "And, three, Max saved my ass after a guy who I was ordered to take out on an Illegal operation when sour. It resulted in his daughter instead of him in an assassination attempt." Alec paused for a moment trying not to expression the emotions he held for Rachel Bradsford, the daughter of the man he was ordered to kill. "The man I was ordered to take out had information that would expose Manticore's existence to the world and probably have led to many of the individual who were running the illegal operations that both you and I had run to be exposed to public scrutiny." Alec finished trying to keep his distance. "A few months ago Bradsford the man who I was ordered to kill, had learned that I was in the local area had put a contract out on my head. Max came to the rescue from him killing me, so as a sort of debt to her and to avenge what happened to me due to the girl that I nailed, I work with them to make some sort of penance for what I have done."
"That doesn't sound like you, Alec" Shadow said to him as he got back a look of "don't go there, and I have my reasons"
"Okay, Alec, I understand. I'll back down for now, but you still owe me some information about it." Shadow said to Alec.
"So where do we go. I mean, we are ass deep into this." Aspen said looking around at everyone in the room.
"The information that I have about the illegal Ops is limited from what I have been able to dig up from Alec, yourself, Shadow and a bits and pieces that I have been able to dig up from what is left from the Manticore database that Lydecker gave me after his falling out with Madam X herself, Renfro. Lydecker hoped that any information that I could dig up and proof that could get Manticore disbanded, and those who were abusing its existence. If this information got out, those responsible would be afraid that their positions of power would be taken away from them. The effect of this political fall out and these politicians out of the way would probably lead to all you guys having a normal life." Logan said to emphasize his point of what might have been except for the cover the ass failsafe plan had gone into effect to take down the Transgenics before they could talk and say anything.
"Now right now you have to deal with the fact that there is a death squad out there trying to wipe out the evidence that Manticore ever existed." Aspen said as she sensed the spirits of various dead Transgenics who were coming into the room. The faces of various rats, bats, lizards, cats, and at least one dog with a horde of deformed creatures were hovering around the conversation that was going on. What caught her attention were the images of a few X6s and a male Brainaic who seemed to gravitate near Max and Melfina. What scared the crap out of her was that there was a woman in her late teens that was standing near Alec, crying as the other spirits around her took up a comforting position around her and consoled her as she attempted to stroke the side of Alec's face. Then Aspen spoke up towards Alec.
"Rachel loves you still and want you to be with Asha." Those simple words put a scare into Alec that got him so angry that he exploded at Aspen.
"Get your PsyOps telepathic ass out of my mind and never go in there again. Rachel was important to me and you ever mention her to Asha, I will make your life hell." Alec said as he gave the look of never do that to me again. The mood in the room was such that 'Aspen knew that if she used her powers like that again, Alec and the others would immediately ostracize her from the community.
"I'm sorry, I just felt that you should tell Asha about how you felt and some of the history that you have with other women in your life. It could help your relationship." She said to the male X5 who was about to march out of the room at that moment.
"Hey Logan, whatever you know and what we can do to help you protect our kind will be a big effort. Okay" Shadow said looking a now angry Alec now walking out of the conference room. "I hope that Aspen's actions don't make you think that this is the way that my unit operates." Shadow said trying to defend his teams actions.
"This is nothing compared to running into Max's old unit. Trust me, Zach her big brother was a force to be reckoned with before he became a cyborg." Logan said in condolence to Shadow.
"This is going to be one hell of a friendship." Shadow said to Logan as they left the meeting room with Melfina carrying the computer tablet under one of her arms.
***
The evening was one long strung out questioning of what had happened. Aspen knew that she had blown the entire connection that she had with Alec. So apologizing to him would take some time. However, right now she needed to clear her head the only way that she knew. To surf the waves with her board and let the forces of nature take away her pain.
The water of the ocean allowed Aspen a sense of peace. The surfboard that she had found in a pile of stuff that was thrown into the trash from an old abandoned house being cleaned out. Aspen had found the board and a couple of videos and tip guides of how to use it were just tossed into a box.
Aspen had made a crude two piece swimsuit out of two old tank tops which were sewn together with a piece of polyester looped around the breast area to add some additional support to her bust and to accentuate her form. The lower half of the suit was constructed the same way out of panties but with a significant difference in the crotch and buttock area being insulated against the cold. If going swimming in the cold northern waters of the Pacific Ocean, Aspen was not having her ass frozen off from going into the water.
When Aspen started surfing it was her way to unwind from encountering everyday life and dealing with the spirits ranging from the white haired Loa from the Voodoo religion who took the form of a streetwise teenage girl who wore silver and yellow cheerleader uniform and a gray baseball cap. The other spirit she encountered was a brown cougar chimera human that looked like some bouncer at some bar. Those two entities tended to lead her out of danger when they made their point clear to herby giving the Transgenic sign for danger or warning, but at times they just drove her plain nuts from them bickering about the spirit world.
The board that Aspen ha rode like a dream on the waves s she connected with the living world. The force of the waves as they rose and fell as she caught them and rode them, forced her to come to grips with the realities she witnessed around her. The very birth waters that the mother of the world which all life was created from.
Wrestling with the waves as she rode them for a few hours brought her peace. The night was coming quickly as the temperature dropped as with the sun. Aspen soon changed her eyesight so that she could see into the dark. The vibrant blues, violets, greens, whites and yellows that made up the night environment she provided a level of stealth for her to move around. The waves and her were connected on a spiritual level as she rode along them, through them, above them and under them. Aspen's body felt so alive when the water and her linked as she moved with the movement of the waves and the control that her body had with it. The primal force that did not care whether or not you were cooked up in a test-tube or were naturally born. All the waves cared for was that you were along for the ride and staying on top was your main concern and to enjoy it as long as it lasted. Then Aspen felt that she needed to head on in, it was getting late and going through the maintenance tunnels that ran form the shore all the way through to the inner city. These tunnels provided a route that many of her kind had used for escape routes and free movement would be smelly at the least but it was the only way that Aspen would not be caught by the Sector Police if she did not have her Id on her.
As Aspen rode the last of the waves that she wanted to ride for the day in, the coolness of the water lapped at her hundred and one point eight body temp as she allowed her body to relax on the board as she laid on. Aspen laid on it as the surf pushed her on in until she felt the sand of the shore brush against the tips of her toes.
As Aspen got off her board, the purple swim top that she wore was suckling the back of her bar-coded neck as she walked to shore towards the buried backpack that she had her stuff in. The beach was abandoned by this time of the night and no one was around to bug her as she walked over the to the staff that she had half buried into the ground with a urban gray, blue and white camouflage flag on the end of it. When Aspen went to the flag she found that it was undisturbed and preceded to dig up her bag and pull out a large five foot by four foot beach towel to dry herself off with and use as a sort of impromptu dressing room as she striped her swim gear off.
Aspen had felt that fully stripping in public would raise many questions and probably would get her arrested by the sector police for indecent exposure. After Aspen had dried herself off as much as she could to get the excess water off her body and her swimsuit. She wrapped it around her body as she dug out a hooded black sweatshirt, green sweat pants, and a pair of green deck shoes. The pulling of her swim briefs off from the towel was simple as she looped one leg out of the suit while she transferred it to the pants leg. The pulling of her top off took about the same amount of effort but it was the most nerve-racking for her due to leaving her not able to see for several seconds. Aspen had to face towards the shore and the sand of the inland with her back to the water so that no one would be able to seen her barcode on the back of her neck. As Aspen pulled her top over her head twelve sets of eyes looked on as she left her sagging black hair slick over the front of her head as the towel wrapped around her fell to the ground leaving her naked breasts exposed to the cool night air. It was not until Aspen felt the towel hit her feet and she cursed aloud that she felt a cold hand touch the back of her neck. At that instant Aspen spun around and grabbed he hand that was touching her, twisting it down and around the person it belonged to get behind them, then she used one of her powerful legs to knock the person in the stomach and used her leg as a pivot point as she flipped the person onto their back.
With Aspen standing over her opponent, she put her foot down on the person's chest and saw a dark haired woman wearing a dark reflecting silver diver skinsuit. The look on this woman's face was of pure terror. It was if she was trying to say something but the sounds were not coming from her mouth but from her entire body. The young woman seemed to be panting, as something seemed to flutter against the bottom of Aspen's foot. It took Aspen a moment to look down at her attacker more closely, and then she noticed why she had not noticed the woman coming towards her from the beach. The woman had come out of the water and she had gills. She had just scared the shit out of an X-series custom developed for aquatic combat. Aspen quickly recognized the Transgenic in front of her giving the sign for "Friend", the near heart attack that Aspen had had in those few seconds had made her think that Agent White had come for her. But Aspen just fell to the ground laughing her head off next to the water-breathing Transgenic, It took Aspen a moment or two to get off of the euphoria from the excitement for her to signal "All clear and Friend" with her hands and to show her fellow Transgenic the back of her neck. Then out of the blue, a very topless Aspen just hugged the fool out of the Sea Nymph as she took a couple of deep breaths of relief. The hands of the Nymph slowly tapped Aspen's back and the two of them looked at each other for several moments and started laughing at each other. The nymph started looking at Aspen's naked breasts, which Aspen took notice of and giggled along with the joke as she reached over and pulled up off the ground her sweatshirt and slipped it on.
"So, I believe that we both scared the crap out of each other." Aspen said to the Nymph who was grinning at her and got a nod back as her reply.
"So what is your story?" Aspen said to the Nymph who was attempting to speak but the words came out as very garbled and unintelligible, so they swapped to using hand gestures to communicate between one another. It took a while but getting the conversation going but it went as follows:
"So what is your designation?" Said the Nymph to Aspen with a look of curiosity in her eyes.
"My designation is X5-796, but I go by the name among the Norms as Aspen Anderson Kilowa."
"Mine is X-223, I am known by the others as Hannnn ah"
"Hannah, that is a nice name, how did you come up with it?"
"It started out as, Hannnn nak, but it became over time Hannn ah among others like myself. In the time that we spent together growing up."
"There are more of you? I know another like myself that had done some medical work on some of your kind. He is currently a member of my unit. What does he look like?"
"Well I only know a few of your kind, I mean a couple of them that run with human allies that helped save my life by a man that wanted to experiment on me. They were like you, one with female with black hair who is with a normal that wears glasses."
"What do you mean, could you recognize them if you saw them again?"
"Yes I would like to but the last time I got involved by being captured by a group of norm fisherman who sold me to some next of mating females that would seek out a mate by dancing in front of them for strips of green paper. Then she came to the rescue of me along with my mate after the adventure I was on."
"So you have not had pleasant experiences with Norms have you."
"No, I have not."
"Neither have I, but they are not all evil, some may be jerks but the rest are decent enough folks"
"Yes they are, but only in small numbers."
At that moment several other creatures and beings such as Hannah came out of the water and moved towards the two of them. The Transgenics that came forward to them consisted of individuals that were like Hannah, humans with Gills, many of which ranged from the ages of twenty-two to twelve. Some of the aquatics looked more animal with their features being that of otter, shark, seal, dolphin and frog in their features and genetic structure. Some of them were wearing the same type of skinsuits that cut down drag resistance in water as they moved through it. A X-series type male with dark skin and dark hair and wore a black dive suit walked over towards Hannah and Aspen realized that he was protective of her.
"Let me guess, your boyfriend?"
"No, my mate."
"Oh, listen, if you need to go back to your home."
"Yes, and also I am a mother."
"Well, it is getting late and I think that we both have to go home. So listen, want to meet tomorrow night."
"Yeah, could you bring some pictures of your friends along so I can see what they look like."
"How about I bring a few of my friends along, tomorrow, one maybe two of them. They might be interested in what you are and what you can do. We Transgenics have to stick together in these trying times."
"I have to play the part of Mommy right now. Uh, nice talking with you. See you tomorrow night Aspen."
"See you soon, Hannah." With that, the two young women went in their different directions to the lives that they led. Little did they know that in the next few hours Hannah would need the help of Eyes Only once again, but this time it was not to save her life. But, that of a young child who will be prayed upon by the monsters of mankind.
TBC
The next chapter will be a murder mystery that will drag the Transgenic community into a level were Aspen will have to come clean with the Gills and the possibility that there are some things that are Nastier than Ames White.
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Chapter 7: Gardens, murder, Transgenics and the Bad Cops.