One Year Later . . .
Dr. Kean's heels click on the white tiles, echoing in the blindingly sterilize hall as she heads towards her employers office.
"Dr. Kean - Dr. Kean I think you need to look at this before you go in." Jones rushes up to her, mousy hair askew as he tries to show her his information.
"Thanks Jones." She scans the holo file and sighs, hands the conductor back and adjusts her thin round glasses. Time to get dealing with this insensitive meat head over with.
She lets out a heavy tired breath as the doors slide open. The petit woman's steps into a dramatically dark room with a huge screen for one of its walls. Flashes of fire and destruction, greens, blues and reds rip across the screen. Kean rolls her eyes as she take in the tall thick man with his hands behind his, glaring at the flashing pictures on the giant screen as if his glare will change anything about it.
"You wanted to see me commander." She decides now was good a time as any to interrupt his dramatic brooding moment.
"Yes I did Dr." He turns, the screen pauses on one of the very young, very angry faces of the monsters that escaped their labs barely a year ago.
"DO you see this Dr. Kean?" He lifts a remote and presses a button. The pictures rewind at a dizzying speed and he pauses it perfectly on a smocking building surrounded by a ring of fire.
Kean wonders how often he practiced this moment. She crosses her arms unimpressed by this brutes glare. Men and their idiot attempts to show force.
"This used to be Megaville's most influential institute - we asked for their assistance before our - escaped projects and they burned it to the ground." Commander Hale says, voice deep and gravely and definitely not pleased.
Kean sighs and rubs at her nose bridge. "I know that sir. We've been trying our best to track and apprehend them but they're proving to be more difficult than we - "
"No Kean." He cuts her off. She bites her tongue. "These things have been out there for a year, they've destroyed every base, army troop, weapons system, and food court they've ever come across. And you still can' seem to catch them." He claps his hands and the lights flicker on.
Kean doesn't even blink. "What are you getting at exactly sir?"
"You're off the haunt."
She figures as much. It irks her very, very much. "Sir if you'll - "
"Sorry Kean, but I'm under orders by higher ups to catch these things before they destroy any more millions of dollars of government property. So I hired a special op force for TSS."
Kean sighs and pushes her glasses up her nose. "Might I remind you sir that Project X is highly unpredictable and my team is the only one that has even a mild idea of where they'll go next."
"Yes, I can see how well that's been working out." He steps into her space and glares down at her from the end of his nose. Kean sneers back. "You'll be taking the back burner from now on Kean. And when these new special Ops apprehend these monsters, you can get back to what you were supposed to do from the beginning." He leans in her face. "Research how to perfect the formula."
She never gets to retort.
The door flies open and a tall model sized woman dressed in tight black and armed to the teeth with dark skin and red hair burst inside with as much intensity as a shark on fire.
Seriously -why was everyone so ridiculously dramatic around here?
"Captain S. Bellum. TSS special forces. I hear you have - "She cocks her lazar gun and smirks. "Interesting assignment for me."
Kean suddenly has the stomach wrenching feeling that Project X was about to be terminated.
A young face peeks around a dark alley corner as cars wiz by - the streets are always busy here. Perfect for covering tracks of runaway freaks.
He scoffs at his own thoughts and steps out of the shadows, shoves his hands in his dark red hoodie and walks down the perfectly laid out asphalt.
"Hey you!"
He stiffens, shoulders go up and glances out of the corner of his hood. Heavily armed men in grey army attire walk towards him. His heart speeds up, his hands stiffen inside his pockets. Breathe - breathe . . . don't panic.
"Hey hold up there."
The men speed up.
Then speed right past him.
The boy stops, heart plummeting and lets out a short hard breathe as the TSS men start questioning an elderly lady that was pushing heavy boxes.
They're looking for them still.
He's sure of that.
He turns down the street and doesn't even pause when a jet car swerves over his head, the driver cursing at him heavily. He ignores them and pushes past a bunch of people immersed in their everyday lives. Ignoring him - just another loser that slipped through the cracks of an otherwise perfect cosmopolitan city of New Townsville.
Blech.
All the propaganda about technological advances to make the world a better place and to help humanity be the best form they can be makes him sick to his stomach. He's gotten to see firsthand what the sacrifices of 'progress' does to those unable to keep up.
Or what things are done to - progress.
He being one of those things. He looks back and forth before shoving at a loosened manhole cover, for all its advances in lifestyles, new Townsville still hasn't figured out how to update their sewage systems - subways were still a present thing here, although the maintenance has been taken over completely by robots now.
He slides down, carefully avoids anything wet and starts the trek down to his 'home' a of right now.
He avoids the large rats scurrying around his feet and pushes a box out of the way, he taps something on his wrist and the a door scrunches open revealing a threadbare room with a couple of boxes, and old couch and a strangely complex system of wires and screens pieced to gather in one corner.
Two boys, his age, a brunet and a blond, mill around obviously bored out of their puny minds.
"Hey Brick! Your back, I'm starved - "
Brick pushes his hood back to reveal a very young, very unimpressed face and a mess of red hair that's been horrifically cut short.
"Sorry Boys - had to make a detour. TSS was swarming the streets. Seems their getting more desperate. Thanks to somebodies stupidity." The red headed boy narrows his eyes in an impressively dark look at the dark haired boy who spoke to him.
The boy had the audacity to look pleased. "What - that trucker guy asked for it. I was hungry and he was a jerk."
"You know Butch - maybe we wouldn't have to be hiding underground if you would control yourself." The red head snaps and taps a screen he has in front of him. It's connected to a camera outside a fast-food place. TSS men like to go there off duty.
There were three out of uniform now. Eating a gross looking burger with fake meat. Real meat was illegal now.
"I hear they're getting replaced. Under new management now –" One was saying a she takes a noisy slurp of his green shake.
"Yah - boss man was pissed. But now - now he's just gone."
Brick looks up sharply, eyes narrowing at this statement.
"They said he retired." The third says.
The other two snort.
"Yah - permanently." The first says.
Brick glares at the screen.
Suddenly a ruckus shakes the restaurant, someone screams and the doors fly open.
A tall woman with red hair pulled back in a tight poufy bun dressed completely in black steps inside as black clad men run in form either side of her.
'This is official TSS business." She says sharply. Check the perimeter - and - " Her eyes land on the camera -
Brick swallows thickly, hands griping his makeshift desk as the terrifying woman comes closer and reaches for his camera looking him in the eye.
"This area has been compromised. Take it down." She hisses right before she rips the camera out of the wall.
Brick startles and the wall behind him explodes.
"They found us!" Butch shrieks and grabs their blond brother.
"Run!"
TSS men swarm the walls.
"Freeze!" Someone screams.
"Fat chance." Brick hisses and they do the opposite of that order. Plasma lasers go off and the boys dodge them, Brick rolls underneath his desk and grabs one of the many random doohickeys he has under there.
"See ya around - chums." He taps some buttons and throws the spherical object at them.
"Down!" Someone screams.
"Move!" Brick shouts and they break through the other side of the tunnel pocket just as the gadget he'd thrown explodes in a mess of red smoke allowing for the perfect distraction.
"We'll get you punks!" Someone screams again between coughs.
"Not in this lifetime." Brick hisses as they disappear down the tunnels.
Half an hour later. . .
Sara Bellum was a lot of things. But a slacker was not one of them. So when she finds out her men let those freaks escape well - some of them weren't going to make it out of intensive training.
She looks around at the mess they've created of the sewer hovel.
Something crunches under her boots, She bends over and picks up a shattered screen, a few years out of date but surprisingly well crafted for being obviously homemade. These things were intelligent. She knew as much.
"Ma'am?" A nervous private salutes behind her.
"Speak." She says, kicking aside a sparking motherboard.
"Project X was sighted near Subways station ten. Spaceport, train fifteen." Private says.
Bellum smirks. So they want to run huh?
She clicks her gun into place.
Then let them run.