56
Just outside of that posh VIP suite, at the Navy Town hospital complex-
He'd taken her arm and made some excuse about "fresh air", before heading away with Penny. Events got sort of jumbled, after that… a lot going on… but prior to the blast, in front of the open lift doors, John told her,
"It's not what you think, Pen. Scott should've been hurt pretty bad, after a fight like Lee says he had, and that guy isn't. Someone's replaced him, somehow."
Penelope's face changed, entirely, then; going from hopeless mask to sudden life and… joy, maybe. Blue eyes very wide first, then narrow, she said,
"This means that the true Scott is elsewhere, perhaps imprisoned, or otherwise imperiled."
John nodded.
"Most likely. Captain Taylor and I can handle the doubles…" Because, maybe Kayo, as well? His sister should have been able to spot a fake but hadn't said a d*mn thing. "You get with Parker. The two of you can…"
"Seek out dear Scott. Never you fear, John, he shall be rescued. And, thank you."
This last, as she lunged upward to seize his head and drag it lower, planting a kiss square on his mouth. Then she let go and dashed off in a swirl of torn pink skirts and overlong jacket, looking as determined as the redhead had ever seen her. Confused, he scrubbed at that kiss with the back of one hand. Females, y'know?
He was turning away to head back, when a couple of things happened, at once. First, with a weird, crumpling roar, the outside wall just came apart and blew free, sending a massive shock wave rocketing outward and blowing dozens of doors off their hinges. Someone had triggered a nasty.
Next, time froze like crystal, locked down in every detail of fanning debris and lancing hot air. No flame, weirdly. John stumbled backward a little, lifted and shoved by what felt like an aerial tidal wave. No alarms, yet. No time. Recovered his balance, just as a sudden glowing red line appeared, hanging vertically right there in front of him. It unzipped to form something that looked like the crimson, slit-pupiled eye of a dragon. Then, he heard,
-Sie schatzen die Friseur-Gesichter ein. -
(Approximately: You esteem the hairy-face one.)
Hairy…? Captain Taylor?
"Ja, Jaeger. Tue Ich." (I do.)
-Dann warden Sie entscheiden, schnell zu machen. –
(Then, you will choose to make haste.)
Easier said than done, pushing against air gone suddenly dense and rejecting as concrete, but John was already moving. Paused just long enough to send Penny a comm message, over the new device she'd gotten from Virgil: Go. It's handled.
No sense having her turn right around and come back. Not with Scott out there, somewhere, needing help.
For the record, time-locked air was not your friend. Hurt like h*ll to breathe and burnt to push through. Especially when impelled by some kind of blast. Jaeger's "eye" kept up by vanishing here, to reappear there. Nice trick. John had to… not walk, but repeatedly lunge and scramble, hurling himself at those pulses of rock-solid air. Took effing forever, from his perspective, because he had to avoid all the glittering, sharp-edged missiles that hung there before him like spears. Lot of energy locked up in those splinters of doorframe and wall. Bump into them and they'd slice right through you.
He hurried, anyhow. After all, this was a hospital, right? There was a doctor, right handy. If he was going to do something dumber than usual, this was the place to go nuts in.
Sent O'Bannon a quick, reassuring text first, because females worried if you stayed out of touch. Plus, he still owed her dinner, someplace nice.
Subjectively, almost fifteen minutes passed before John fought his way back into the ruined hospital suite. First thing he saw was a missing back wall. Not blown apart. F*cking gone, with the doctor frozen there, in the act of being blasted right out, twenty-some stories above street level.
Spotted Rigby, who actually seemed to be moving, just very slowly. The Marine looked pale and upset and was headed where Kayo had been. Only, she'd vanished. 'Scott', too. Lee was still there, locked in the act of tumbling backward, one arm up to defend his face from a blizzard of glistening shards. Not wood, glass or masonry. Something targeted.
His first impulse was to snatch Uncle Lee out of danger, only… y'know… The mission came first, and Doctor Shiro was a dead man, if John didn't get there in time to haul his ass back inside. Lines of sparking red light had begun to lash out, knitting the disintegrating floor and walls together. Mostly. There were plenty of gaps, looking more like stones in a glowing red current than any kind of safe flooring. Still,
"Jaeger!" John called out, nearly frying his vocal cords. Needed more time.
-Gehen. Es wird behandelt. –
(Go. It is handled.)
John nodded, saying,
"Gut. Wird gemacht." (Right. Will do.)
Slogging past Taylor, John reached over to touch the man's out-flung left arm.
"Coming back for you, Sir. Promise."
Left him behind, but God, that hurt. Then, through air like burning slag, over a floor smashed into red-stitched loose blocks, John went after the wide-eyed, mouth-open doctor, whose arms reached desperately inward for help.
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Approaching Tracy Island, below the surface-
Kane stood upon the deck of his Hive Ship, which wasn't entirely ready (but was going to see battle, anyhow). He'd glided past a towering sea mount, the whole thing pulsing with corals and schools of fish like silvery smoke. Saw it all through his link to Ship's systems. His mechs rode along on the hull, or else flashed through the currents, silencing the island's alarm system and sensors. He wanted no advance warning, you see. No sign of his presence, at all.
That meant that he could not simply surface… but the water-boy, Dumbass, had access through some sort of tunnel. Shouldn't be too hard to… Really? Runway lights and a wide-open cavern? Why not a neon 'welcome aboard' sign, too? Then again, he was emitting a stolen Thunderbird code. The tunnel might have looked like a regular sea cave, for anyone else.
Whatever. He had his way in. Ilya was at the main gun, meanwhile, watching with interest as the Mechanic directed Ship's next metamorphosis. She'd need to be thinner, to access that tunnel. With gestures and lines of cyber-code, he transformed the vessel, making her sleeker still.
Katrin sat on his link dais, playing with a set of small, big-eyed mechs. Brightly coloured, they taught as well as rolled around chiming. She was happy, reaching with thoughts like warm, patting hands to Kane and her brother.
"You two," he rumbled, as Ship bucked and groaned all around them. "Hold fire until I've painted a target, like this."
A moment's concentration caused a disk of light to appear on the rippling bulkhead, at a frequency visible only to them and the massive cyborg, himself. Their enhancements, the circuitry he'd implanted, were boosting their senses, shaving response time. They weren't simply half-vermin kids, any longer.
Ilya responded by bringing his rifle to bear and getting a rapid target-lock. On safety, of course. Katrin scrambled to her feet and then reached out with a wave of inchoate power; terribly strong and scarcely controlled.
"Good," he allowed, switching the target back off. "You will remain with me or a team of mechs, only separating if ordered to." Didn't ask for assent or understanding. They'd do as he told them, and live.
Right. In his own experience, there'd been no such training. No instructions, at all. He'd survived childhood because he was quick, strong and intelligent… and because he'd been fortunate. Others had not. Perhaps by teaching these two, he was crippling natural skills?
He just didn't know. Shaking his partly-shaved head, Kane left off worrying. It felt right to do as he was. To 'shelter' the children, while they grew strong. Anyhow, his best philosophy started and ended with blasting weaponry. Best speeches, too.
As Ship completed her metamorphosis and entered that foolishly welcoming tunnel, Kane growled,
"Bring charge packs and food bars. We will not announce ourselves, until I am certain who is a Tracy. Once that is known, you will need to be ruthless. Kanni are young. They have few alternate forms, making them physically stable, but unskilled and violent. You will destroy them, without hesitation. They cannot well take the form of a being with bio-circuitry. Can't read it. Trust only me, and each other."
"Yes, Sir," said Ilya, re-slinging his rifle. The girl simply smiled and sent a pulse of warmth-safety-arm wrap-full belly-fight. 'Yes', without words.
"No more good girl," she told them both suddenly, as her toy mechs switched colours to match her clothing and swarmed up her legs. "No more be quiet."
For some reason, Kane reached down to place a big, armoured hand on the top of her curly blonde head.
"Not 'good'," he confirmed. "Powerful."
All three of them… and maybe the Tracys, now, too.
…But as for Tanusha, she woke to a nightmare of horror and loss; back where she'd been before found by her dad.