Disclaimer: I do not own Totally Spies
Claimer: Any and all OCs in this story are mine, please ask before using them
IMPORTANT To those of you who don't thoroughly read things, there's a little paragraph the follows every chapter, and it contains some important stuff. I suggest you read it next time.
' ' - thought
( ) - author's notes
=- time/scene change
== - flashback
The Assassin: WOOHP Files
Chapter 6
=======================================================
"It doesn't matter," Nate said to himself as he stood on the small balcony of his room. "Nothing that they say or do will change my mind."
He was speaking, of course, of Sam, Alex and Clover, who had still yet to arrive, but he knew it was only a matter of time. It was time for two of them to see the truth about their friend, a truth he was surprised they couldn't see. Turning away from the moon, which was hovering just above one of the towers of the bridge, he slid the door shut and sat at the small table provided.
Plugged in the walljack was his laptop, which was currently sifting through the data that Devin had given him. He needed to know how she would be modified to pilot the Daedalus. According to the information, the pilot would need to be grafted directly to the biomechanical brainstem of the Daedalus. They would cease to exist and become the catalyst for all functions within the machine.
"I can't allow that," he closed the laptop as lights went by his window, turning behind the pub below. "They're here."
It didn't take long for there to be knock at his door, and he went to answer it. Before he touched the knob, though, he looked through the door and saw Clover pressing her taser against it. He shook his head and punched a hole through the door, knocking Clover in the head, causing her to drop her weapon.
"What the hell?" he heard Sam asked as he opened the door.
The blonde was on the floor, shaking and convulsing, sparks shooting from her mouth. Then, all of a sudden, the twitching stopped, and she laid still, light wisps of smoke rising from her body. Kicking her over, Nate saw the taser lying on the floor beneath her. He looked at the other two, who seemed saddened at the loss of their friend, and he figured now was as good a time as any.
"Nate, how could you, given that she was going to use it on you, you didn't have to kill her," Alex said with tears in her eyes.
"Alex, look," he grabbed Clover, twined his fingers tightly in her hair, and yanked as hard as he could.
The skin on Clover's head was pulled right off, revealing there to be a robot beneath it. Dropping it back to the floor, he tossed the fake face to Sam, who examined it closely.
"Isn't it amazing that that's what we all look like on the inside (what's this from)?" Alex asked gaining an exasperated look from both Nate and Sam.
"Hey, this feels just like that stuff those duplicates of us were made of," the redhead said.
"It is."
"Then where's Clover?" Alex looked over the robot, marveling at how well it copied Clover.
"Clover has been on vacation with her mother and father for the past three days, she told you," the assassin said ushering them into the room.
"She showed up at school and told us the vacation was off," Sam said sitting at the table while Alex sat on one of the beds. She then reached for the laptop, "What are you working on?"
"Don't touch that," he snapped glaring at her, sometimes she could be little nosey. "Nothing you need to know about."
"Is it about the girl you told me about? You told me to let her in when she arrived, didn't you?" Sam looked accusingly at him, her own glare making him chuckle.
"Who is she?" Alex asked looking between the two.
"That's none of your business," his gaze turned to the young girl, a cloud of red passing over his iris.
He moved passed the bed to the door and grabbed the Clover-android, dragging it into the room. Once inside he shut the door and threw it in a corner, planning on tinkering with it later. Walking to a small line of buttons on the wall, like the kind inside an elevator, his finger hovering in front of it. Looking back at the two girls he asked:
"You want anything to drink?"
"Um...Coke?" Sam replied.
"Diet Coke for me," Alex waved from the bed roughly five feet away.
"Alright," he pressed three buttons and within a few seconds a vacuum tube (I got the idea from Monster House) in the wall opened there was a bottle of Coke, Diet Coke, and Guinness. Taking the sodas out he tossed them to the appropriate person. Sitting down on the edge of the second bed, he sighed, "Sorry I snapped at you girls, I'm just a little high strung at the moment."
"So, what do you plan to do with that?" Sam asked looking over at the robot.
"I don't know yet," he said knowing full well what he was going to do. "Sam, could I have a look at that watch?"
"Huh, sure," she handed her flower-shaped watch to him, which he quickly crushed. "Hey?!"
"Watches have eyes and walls have ears, Sam, it wasn't turned on just now, but I had to make sure," he turned his attention to Alex, who had her watch out as well. "Yours wasn't WOOHP provided, so there's no need."
Moving further up on the bed, almost to the head, he reached over the edge and grabbed his pack, opening it and taking out his deck. The green protectors on his cards were heavily worn and most of them were see through. With near-lightening motions of his hands he began shuffling them, calculating the movements to know that none of the cards were anywhere near the cards they started next to. All the while he was looking at Sam, at the noticeable bulge in her backpack.
"You play?" he asked placing the deck on the bed.
"H-how did you know?" she looked between him and Alex.
"You keep a deck in the side pocket of your backpack, there are forty-four cards in it," he smiled as she retrieved her cards, placing the pack on the floor.
"Alex, what time is it?" Sam asked as she eyed Nate's deck, sitting innocently on the bed.
"Um, three thirty in the morning," she said looked at her watch.
"Hm, hey Sam how bout a quick duel?" he sat with a small smile on his face, looking at the deck in the spy's hand. "Or should we wait till morning?"
"We should wait, Jerry kinda pulled us out of bed, and I'd like to get back to sleep," she placed the deck on desk, next to the closed laptop, and moved to sit next to Alex on the bed. "These are big enough for two people, so..."
"You and Alex take that one, and this one's mine," he picked up his deck and placed it onto the nightstand.
Pulling off his tank top and kicking off his boots, he laid down on the bed and placed his hands behind his head. His eyes closed as he heard the click of the light going off and drifted off to sleep. Sam and Alex followed suit, but they didn't take off their outfits; if Nate hadn't been there, they probably would have.
=
An hour later Nate woke up and looked over at Sam and Alex, sound asleep. He smiled, they actually were kind of cute, when they were quiet. Walking over to the android, he opened its back and slipped a small plug that appeared on his finger into an outlet. In a few minutes he had accomplished what he had set out to do and reprogrammed it. With that he dropped it back in the corner, ready for the morrow night's excursion.
Looking out the sliding glass door, he saw that the moon was still out, and stepped onto the balcony. He sighed and sipped the beer he had yet to finish. Unconsciously he began looking at stars, trying to spot and name constellations. While he was envisioning the constellation Draco, two arms slipped around his front, and tightened, pulling the body closer behind him. A head was placed between his shoulder blades, and soft hair tickled the base of his neck.
"Alex, why aren't you asleep?" he asked knowing exactly who it was.
"How did you know it was me?"
"Because Sam isn't interested; if you're thinking of the time we spend at the library, it's because we both like books," he moved one of his hands that were resting on the railing and placed it over hers. "Now, why aren't you in bed?"
She sighed and tightened her arms around his middle, "It's hard for me to sleep in a bed other than my own. The beds here are too hard. I'm not tired. Sam snores too loud."
"Only two of those reasons made any sense," he smiled lightly to himself.
"Nate, I want you to answer a question of mine," she said sounding a little different.
"Go ahead."
"When you get back to Beverly Hills...if you get back to Beverly Hills, do you think we could go on a date?" she asked hesitantly, thinking carefully about what she wanted to say.
"I don't see the harm," he said and felt her gasp against his back.
"Promise?" she squeaked.
"I promise," he turned around and looked down at her smiling face. "Now go back to bed."
She nodded silently and walked back inside, keeping the image of him bathed in moonlight fresh in her mind. Without really thinking, she got into the second bed, leaving Sam to roll over and stretch out in the first, alone. A slight whimper escaped her when her arm reached over, intending on wrapping it around her friend, but alas found no one there. Arm flailing about, she finally grabbed a pillow and pulled it against herself.
=
"So, that's that they've been up to," Nate said to himself as he went over mission files from Sam, Clover, and Alex's missions before meeting him. "I wonder why they've been given such hard missions, it doesn't make any sense."
It was early the next morning, and Sam and Alex were still asleep. He had hacked into the WOOHP database and was looking over all their early missions, wondering what things would have been like if he'd been there. Nothing could possibly have given him more pleasure than doing some normal spy work, killing got boring after a while; it was just too easy.
He heard the girls beginning to stir and picked up the laptop, opened the ruined door, and went down to the bar for some breakfast. Placing the computer on a table, he reopened it and started running through the files again. There was a creaking of door hinges, and the shuffling of feet before Devin was standing behind him.
"Daedalus?" he asked looking over the schematics.
"Yeah, they found the tertiary files, and started up the program again," Nate sighed as he focused most of his attention on the cockpit. "They'll be done decrypting them in six days."
"Doesn't matter, there's a little surprise waiting for them on that day," Devin laughed a little at his own genius.
"Last line of code is linked to a bunch of explosives," Nate said.
"How did you know?"
"They figured that out last night and deactivated them," he switched the screen from the schematics to security cameras. "It's starting to take shape. I'll have to make my move tonight."
"Well, I'd help, but I'll just keep watch of the spies," he looked towards the stairs.
"They're coming with me," Nate replied as he moved the security camera left and right. "There he is."
The camera focused in on a catwalk above the serpentine machine, there was Jerry, overseeing the construction. His eyes moved ceaselessly, and he was constantly looking over his shoulder. This was a bit of a problem, but nothing he couldn't handle. The reprogramming of the robot Clover would take care of that. To be honest, Nate could care less about what WOOHP did, as long as they left him alone, and gave him back what they took.
"So, you're going to get her back, how do you plan to do that?"
"I'm not telling, there's still the chance you're working for them," he replied closing the laptop and sitting back in his chair.
"Yes, I guess in your position you can't trust anyone," Devin laughed and started back towards the bar. "While I'm back here, you hungry."
"Not really, but they might be," he pointed to Sam and Alex who had just come down the stairs.
=
"So, Dr. Rivage, how are the modifications coming?" Jerry asked.
"Well, to be honest, her physical and genetic makeup isn't cooperating with the upgrades. We believe it would be easier to just clone her and alter the clone with the upgrades from birth," Natalie said bringing her research on the matter up on the screen. "The way we engineered her, we didn't anticipate something like this. She was supposed to be a pilot, not a killer."
"Very well, do whatever it takes," he waved her out of his office.
She turned to leave his office, the submissive look on her face disappearing as a look of sadness replaced it.
'I'm sorry Nate, but I've had to take a another piece,' she thought as she left. 'The security around here is going to prevent me from tampering with the clone that would destroy it, but that doesn't mean I can't tone the strength down a little.'
With that thought she began smiling as she entered the lab, checking up on the child now growing in the test tube. The green hair had already begun to grown, and she shook slightly with growth spurts every few seconds. They had accelerated the growth rate to have her ready in time; she would be fully-grown in a few hours. Sighing Natalie sat hard in her chair and put her feet up on her desk.
'Well, all that's left to do now is wait,' she thought as the lights went out for a second, then came back on.
"What are you waiting for?" a female voice behind her asked.
"You...but how?" the scientist asked turning to see the girl there.
"There are holo-projectors in every corner of every room, I can be anywhere at any time," she smiled and looked at the clone. "Nicely done, I didn't think it would grow this fast."
"We shouldn't be talking."
"Do not worry, the security measures have been deactivated, we can speak freely."
"Alright, why are you here?"
"I get bored down in the cooler, so I visit people," she looked down. "But mostly it in their dreams, when their minds are hooked to the mainframe."
"That's...so sad."
"That's why I need to get out of here, and he's going to help me," she looked at the women not five feet away from her. "I know he's going to come, whatever it takes, we'll be whole again."
"You know what happens when the merge goes through, right?" Natalie stood and locked the door. "What happens when you become whole?"
"Yes, both of us cease to exist and become who we were before," the hologram leaned against the tank.
"Do you understand what that will mean for the people who know him as he is?"
"Yes, and I don't care, and neither does he. I know what he thinks, I know what he feels, and I feel the same," she turned and looked at the tank, at the clone of her who would soon die, "because we are the same."
Natalie walked over to the hologram and was about to place her hand on the girl's stomach, but instead it passed right through. Smiling, she continued to move her hand against the tank, her arm extending right through the hologram's abdomen. The slight sensations of the photons against her bare arm made her giggle; it tickled, and made the hairs on her arm stand up.
"Why do you act like that?" the hologram asked and moved to the side, so Natalie's hand slid through it. "What was the purpose of using Erica?"
"She's your mother, yet you call her by her first name?" Natalie turned away from the tank and sat on her desk.
"She was Nate's mother, and you used her to test what you put in him, now I'll ask again, why her?"
"Because she was the most viable host for it, okay?" Natalie snapped with more force than she knew she needed. "She was the strongest, she was the fastest, the most resilient, there was no one more qualified."
"That makes no difference, there were plenty of other options open to you at the time," the hologram's hands balled into fists. "If he heard you talking about her like she had been a piece of meat, do you know what he would have done?"
The hologram vanished and the lights flickered again, and the door unlocked. Natalie swung her feet back and forth a little before collapsing to the floor. It was true that there were other ways for them to test the probes, they didn't necessarily need Erica. It had just made sense to them at the time; if it was to be used on a human, use the best human specimen. They didn't know it would kill her, but that wouldn't have happened had the probes been checked thoroughly enough.
"There was a problem in each and every one of the probes," she lifted her head when she heard the audio file start on her computer. "We didn't know about it till it was too late. She was walking for a few hours before we activated the probes, and in that time she was telling us she felt fine. Once activated, the transfer energy system sent power to the probes, which in turn began directing the power straight to her body, killing her. It seemed strange to me, though, that the problem was actually an upgrade ordered by Jer-"
"STOP IT!" she screamed flinging her chair at the computer screen, then ripped the speakers from her desk and threw them across the room. "We...we didn't know."
=
"Let's see, they'll have guards at the door, but that's not the real problem," Nate said as he checked through the security camera logs. "The real problem is this."
He brought up the feed from Dr. Rivage's office, and there were a few minutes when the camera went off, and there was no sound. When the feed returned, the monitor was broken and the speakers lay on the floor. It made perfect sense to him how that happened, she had moved beyond the holodeck and was using the projectors in the labs. She was getting impatient.
'You won't have long to wait,' he thought.
"What happened in there?" Alex asked looking over his shoulder.
"Don't know, maybe she was thinking too hard," Nate shrugged leaving Alex completely oblivious to his lie. "Or she might have gotten some bad news."
'He knows something,' Alex thought, 'but what?'
Nate's eyes flicked from the screen to Alex every few seconds, he felt something different towards this one; she was different somehow. He knew he shouldn't let it bother him, but being here, in this relaxed place, it was making him think about things he normally wouldn't. Shifting his thoughts from her, he turned them to Sam and Grace, who were at a table at the other end of the restaurant. He couldn't hear what they were talking about, but they did giggle a lot.
'I see those two are hitting it off quite well,' he thought as he shut the laptop and leaned back in his chair.
After a few minutes he looked over at the clock and pushed the chair back, getting the attention of the two spies. Getting up his trench coat began to grow from the tank top he was wearing. He went upstairs and came back down with the robot Clover, her face was put back on, but the eyes were still closed. Placing her on the floor he sat back down and looked at the other two.
"What are you gonna do with that?" Alex asked eyeing the Clover-bot.
"That is going to be bringing me in," he smirked patting it on its blonde head. "Unconscious and in chains."
"Whadda you mean?"
"It's the only way to get inside WOOHP without drawing attention," he said with a slight sigh.
"But wouldn't they have realized by now that the android's been knocked out?" Sam asked having walked over with Grace.
"Not if it was taken out in such a way that it still broadcast a false signal," the smirk returned as he pushed the front two legs of the chair off the ground. "They always have backup transponders in those bots, they'll just think the main was damaged in a fight."
"What are we doing while she brings you in?"
"You two are going home, by now your mothers must be worried," he let the legs fall to the floor rather hard for the mood he was in. "And you'll have a new friend to explain to her, won't you Sam?"
"W-what do you mean?" she asked as her face turned crimson.
He didn't respond, just smiled a little and glanced between her and Grace, who had also blushed. The only one who looked confused was Alex; even Devin, who was listening from behind the bar, knew what he was talking about. It was no surprise where the picture Nate had of the three girls went; a search of Grace's room would find it there.
"I think you already know what it is I mean, but that's for you to deal with," he stood up and grabbed Clover, placing her face down on the table. A quick tap to the back of her head brought the robot to life.
Her eyes blinked opened and she looked around, finding herself down in the bar she had been in the previous night. Turning her head this way and that, she scanned her surroundings, Sam and Alex were there, as was the target. But something was wrong, he was no longer the target, the HUD (Heads Up Display) behind her eyes labeled him as an ally.
"What happened?" she asked standing up.
"You got knocked out, and I repaired you," Nate explained handing her back the tazer. "You fell on this."
"Oh, that's right, I remember now," she said reading the false memory log. "So, um, what now?"
"Now we go see Jerry," he smiled a very malicious smile.
TBC
Well, that's where I'm ending this one, though most of you probably won't heed my warning above and read this. It stated, last chapter, that I needed a name for the girl, and no one replied, why? It may not matter anymore, but I'd still like to know. It took me almost a month to get a name, and that was only because I contacted a very reliable friend, one who takes fanfiction to levels even I can't fathom. I'll leave it to you people to figure out who it is, he knows who he is. That's it, that's all for me for now, I'll be working on new chapters for other stories, so don't expect to see this one updated till June.
Claimer: Any and all OCs in this story are mine, please ask before using them
IMPORTANT To those of you who don't thoroughly read things, there's a little paragraph the follows every chapter, and it contains some important stuff. I suggest you read it next time.
' ' - thought
( ) - author's notes
=- time/scene change
== - flashback
The Assassin: WOOHP Files
Chapter 6
=======================================================
"It doesn't matter," Nate said to himself as he stood on the small balcony of his room. "Nothing that they say or do will change my mind."
He was speaking, of course, of Sam, Alex and Clover, who had still yet to arrive, but he knew it was only a matter of time. It was time for two of them to see the truth about their friend, a truth he was surprised they couldn't see. Turning away from the moon, which was hovering just above one of the towers of the bridge, he slid the door shut and sat at the small table provided.
Plugged in the walljack was his laptop, which was currently sifting through the data that Devin had given him. He needed to know how she would be modified to pilot the Daedalus. According to the information, the pilot would need to be grafted directly to the biomechanical brainstem of the Daedalus. They would cease to exist and become the catalyst for all functions within the machine.
"I can't allow that," he closed the laptop as lights went by his window, turning behind the pub below. "They're here."
It didn't take long for there to be knock at his door, and he went to answer it. Before he touched the knob, though, he looked through the door and saw Clover pressing her taser against it. He shook his head and punched a hole through the door, knocking Clover in the head, causing her to drop her weapon.
"What the hell?" he heard Sam asked as he opened the door.
The blonde was on the floor, shaking and convulsing, sparks shooting from her mouth. Then, all of a sudden, the twitching stopped, and she laid still, light wisps of smoke rising from her body. Kicking her over, Nate saw the taser lying on the floor beneath her. He looked at the other two, who seemed saddened at the loss of their friend, and he figured now was as good a time as any.
"Nate, how could you, given that she was going to use it on you, you didn't have to kill her," Alex said with tears in her eyes.
"Alex, look," he grabbed Clover, twined his fingers tightly in her hair, and yanked as hard as he could.
The skin on Clover's head was pulled right off, revealing there to be a robot beneath it. Dropping it back to the floor, he tossed the fake face to Sam, who examined it closely.
"Isn't it amazing that that's what we all look like on the inside (what's this from)?" Alex asked gaining an exasperated look from both Nate and Sam.
"Hey, this feels just like that stuff those duplicates of us were made of," the redhead said.
"It is."
"Then where's Clover?" Alex looked over the robot, marveling at how well it copied Clover.
"Clover has been on vacation with her mother and father for the past three days, she told you," the assassin said ushering them into the room.
"She showed up at school and told us the vacation was off," Sam said sitting at the table while Alex sat on one of the beds. She then reached for the laptop, "What are you working on?"
"Don't touch that," he snapped glaring at her, sometimes she could be little nosey. "Nothing you need to know about."
"Is it about the girl you told me about? You told me to let her in when she arrived, didn't you?" Sam looked accusingly at him, her own glare making him chuckle.
"Who is she?" Alex asked looking between the two.
"That's none of your business," his gaze turned to the young girl, a cloud of red passing over his iris.
He moved passed the bed to the door and grabbed the Clover-android, dragging it into the room. Once inside he shut the door and threw it in a corner, planning on tinkering with it later. Walking to a small line of buttons on the wall, like the kind inside an elevator, his finger hovering in front of it. Looking back at the two girls he asked:
"You want anything to drink?"
"Um...Coke?" Sam replied.
"Diet Coke for me," Alex waved from the bed roughly five feet away.
"Alright," he pressed three buttons and within a few seconds a vacuum tube (I got the idea from Monster House) in the wall opened there was a bottle of Coke, Diet Coke, and Guinness. Taking the sodas out he tossed them to the appropriate person. Sitting down on the edge of the second bed, he sighed, "Sorry I snapped at you girls, I'm just a little high strung at the moment."
"So, what do you plan to do with that?" Sam asked looking over at the robot.
"I don't know yet," he said knowing full well what he was going to do. "Sam, could I have a look at that watch?"
"Huh, sure," she handed her flower-shaped watch to him, which he quickly crushed. "Hey?!"
"Watches have eyes and walls have ears, Sam, it wasn't turned on just now, but I had to make sure," he turned his attention to Alex, who had her watch out as well. "Yours wasn't WOOHP provided, so there's no need."
Moving further up on the bed, almost to the head, he reached over the edge and grabbed his pack, opening it and taking out his deck. The green protectors on his cards were heavily worn and most of them were see through. With near-lightening motions of his hands he began shuffling them, calculating the movements to know that none of the cards were anywhere near the cards they started next to. All the while he was looking at Sam, at the noticeable bulge in her backpack.
"You play?" he asked placing the deck on the bed.
"H-how did you know?" she looked between him and Alex.
"You keep a deck in the side pocket of your backpack, there are forty-four cards in it," he smiled as she retrieved her cards, placing the pack on the floor.
"Alex, what time is it?" Sam asked as she eyed Nate's deck, sitting innocently on the bed.
"Um, three thirty in the morning," she said looked at her watch.
"Hm, hey Sam how bout a quick duel?" he sat with a small smile on his face, looking at the deck in the spy's hand. "Or should we wait till morning?"
"We should wait, Jerry kinda pulled us out of bed, and I'd like to get back to sleep," she placed the deck on desk, next to the closed laptop, and moved to sit next to Alex on the bed. "These are big enough for two people, so..."
"You and Alex take that one, and this one's mine," he picked up his deck and placed it onto the nightstand.
Pulling off his tank top and kicking off his boots, he laid down on the bed and placed his hands behind his head. His eyes closed as he heard the click of the light going off and drifted off to sleep. Sam and Alex followed suit, but they didn't take off their outfits; if Nate hadn't been there, they probably would have.
=
An hour later Nate woke up and looked over at Sam and Alex, sound asleep. He smiled, they actually were kind of cute, when they were quiet. Walking over to the android, he opened its back and slipped a small plug that appeared on his finger into an outlet. In a few minutes he had accomplished what he had set out to do and reprogrammed it. With that he dropped it back in the corner, ready for the morrow night's excursion.
Looking out the sliding glass door, he saw that the moon was still out, and stepped onto the balcony. He sighed and sipped the beer he had yet to finish. Unconsciously he began looking at stars, trying to spot and name constellations. While he was envisioning the constellation Draco, two arms slipped around his front, and tightened, pulling the body closer behind him. A head was placed between his shoulder blades, and soft hair tickled the base of his neck.
"Alex, why aren't you asleep?" he asked knowing exactly who it was.
"How did you know it was me?"
"Because Sam isn't interested; if you're thinking of the time we spend at the library, it's because we both like books," he moved one of his hands that were resting on the railing and placed it over hers. "Now, why aren't you in bed?"
She sighed and tightened her arms around his middle, "It's hard for me to sleep in a bed other than my own. The beds here are too hard. I'm not tired. Sam snores too loud."
"Only two of those reasons made any sense," he smiled lightly to himself.
"Nate, I want you to answer a question of mine," she said sounding a little different.
"Go ahead."
"When you get back to Beverly Hills...if you get back to Beverly Hills, do you think we could go on a date?" she asked hesitantly, thinking carefully about what she wanted to say.
"I don't see the harm," he said and felt her gasp against his back.
"Promise?" she squeaked.
"I promise," he turned around and looked down at her smiling face. "Now go back to bed."
She nodded silently and walked back inside, keeping the image of him bathed in moonlight fresh in her mind. Without really thinking, she got into the second bed, leaving Sam to roll over and stretch out in the first, alone. A slight whimper escaped her when her arm reached over, intending on wrapping it around her friend, but alas found no one there. Arm flailing about, she finally grabbed a pillow and pulled it against herself.
=
"So, that's that they've been up to," Nate said to himself as he went over mission files from Sam, Clover, and Alex's missions before meeting him. "I wonder why they've been given such hard missions, it doesn't make any sense."
It was early the next morning, and Sam and Alex were still asleep. He had hacked into the WOOHP database and was looking over all their early missions, wondering what things would have been like if he'd been there. Nothing could possibly have given him more pleasure than doing some normal spy work, killing got boring after a while; it was just too easy.
He heard the girls beginning to stir and picked up the laptop, opened the ruined door, and went down to the bar for some breakfast. Placing the computer on a table, he reopened it and started running through the files again. There was a creaking of door hinges, and the shuffling of feet before Devin was standing behind him.
"Daedalus?" he asked looking over the schematics.
"Yeah, they found the tertiary files, and started up the program again," Nate sighed as he focused most of his attention on the cockpit. "They'll be done decrypting them in six days."
"Doesn't matter, there's a little surprise waiting for them on that day," Devin laughed a little at his own genius.
"Last line of code is linked to a bunch of explosives," Nate said.
"How did you know?"
"They figured that out last night and deactivated them," he switched the screen from the schematics to security cameras. "It's starting to take shape. I'll have to make my move tonight."
"Well, I'd help, but I'll just keep watch of the spies," he looked towards the stairs.
"They're coming with me," Nate replied as he moved the security camera left and right. "There he is."
The camera focused in on a catwalk above the serpentine machine, there was Jerry, overseeing the construction. His eyes moved ceaselessly, and he was constantly looking over his shoulder. This was a bit of a problem, but nothing he couldn't handle. The reprogramming of the robot Clover would take care of that. To be honest, Nate could care less about what WOOHP did, as long as they left him alone, and gave him back what they took.
"So, you're going to get her back, how do you plan to do that?"
"I'm not telling, there's still the chance you're working for them," he replied closing the laptop and sitting back in his chair.
"Yes, I guess in your position you can't trust anyone," Devin laughed and started back towards the bar. "While I'm back here, you hungry."
"Not really, but they might be," he pointed to Sam and Alex who had just come down the stairs.
=
"So, Dr. Rivage, how are the modifications coming?" Jerry asked.
"Well, to be honest, her physical and genetic makeup isn't cooperating with the upgrades. We believe it would be easier to just clone her and alter the clone with the upgrades from birth," Natalie said bringing her research on the matter up on the screen. "The way we engineered her, we didn't anticipate something like this. She was supposed to be a pilot, not a killer."
"Very well, do whatever it takes," he waved her out of his office.
She turned to leave his office, the submissive look on her face disappearing as a look of sadness replaced it.
'I'm sorry Nate, but I've had to take a another piece,' she thought as she left. 'The security around here is going to prevent me from tampering with the clone that would destroy it, but that doesn't mean I can't tone the strength down a little.'
With that thought she began smiling as she entered the lab, checking up on the child now growing in the test tube. The green hair had already begun to grown, and she shook slightly with growth spurts every few seconds. They had accelerated the growth rate to have her ready in time; she would be fully-grown in a few hours. Sighing Natalie sat hard in her chair and put her feet up on her desk.
'Well, all that's left to do now is wait,' she thought as the lights went out for a second, then came back on.
"What are you waiting for?" a female voice behind her asked.
"You...but how?" the scientist asked turning to see the girl there.
"There are holo-projectors in every corner of every room, I can be anywhere at any time," she smiled and looked at the clone. "Nicely done, I didn't think it would grow this fast."
"We shouldn't be talking."
"Do not worry, the security measures have been deactivated, we can speak freely."
"Alright, why are you here?"
"I get bored down in the cooler, so I visit people," she looked down. "But mostly it in their dreams, when their minds are hooked to the mainframe."
"That's...so sad."
"That's why I need to get out of here, and he's going to help me," she looked at the women not five feet away from her. "I know he's going to come, whatever it takes, we'll be whole again."
"You know what happens when the merge goes through, right?" Natalie stood and locked the door. "What happens when you become whole?"
"Yes, both of us cease to exist and become who we were before," the hologram leaned against the tank.
"Do you understand what that will mean for the people who know him as he is?"
"Yes, and I don't care, and neither does he. I know what he thinks, I know what he feels, and I feel the same," she turned and looked at the tank, at the clone of her who would soon die, "because we are the same."
Natalie walked over to the hologram and was about to place her hand on the girl's stomach, but instead it passed right through. Smiling, she continued to move her hand against the tank, her arm extending right through the hologram's abdomen. The slight sensations of the photons against her bare arm made her giggle; it tickled, and made the hairs on her arm stand up.
"Why do you act like that?" the hologram asked and moved to the side, so Natalie's hand slid through it. "What was the purpose of using Erica?"
"She's your mother, yet you call her by her first name?" Natalie turned away from the tank and sat on her desk.
"She was Nate's mother, and you used her to test what you put in him, now I'll ask again, why her?"
"Because she was the most viable host for it, okay?" Natalie snapped with more force than she knew she needed. "She was the strongest, she was the fastest, the most resilient, there was no one more qualified."
"That makes no difference, there were plenty of other options open to you at the time," the hologram's hands balled into fists. "If he heard you talking about her like she had been a piece of meat, do you know what he would have done?"
The hologram vanished and the lights flickered again, and the door unlocked. Natalie swung her feet back and forth a little before collapsing to the floor. It was true that there were other ways for them to test the probes, they didn't necessarily need Erica. It had just made sense to them at the time; if it was to be used on a human, use the best human specimen. They didn't know it would kill her, but that wouldn't have happened had the probes been checked thoroughly enough.
"There was a problem in each and every one of the probes," she lifted her head when she heard the audio file start on her computer. "We didn't know about it till it was too late. She was walking for a few hours before we activated the probes, and in that time she was telling us she felt fine. Once activated, the transfer energy system sent power to the probes, which in turn began directing the power straight to her body, killing her. It seemed strange to me, though, that the problem was actually an upgrade ordered by Jer-"
"STOP IT!" she screamed flinging her chair at the computer screen, then ripped the speakers from her desk and threw them across the room. "We...we didn't know."
=
"Let's see, they'll have guards at the door, but that's not the real problem," Nate said as he checked through the security camera logs. "The real problem is this."
He brought up the feed from Dr. Rivage's office, and there were a few minutes when the camera went off, and there was no sound. When the feed returned, the monitor was broken and the speakers lay on the floor. It made perfect sense to him how that happened, she had moved beyond the holodeck and was using the projectors in the labs. She was getting impatient.
'You won't have long to wait,' he thought.
"What happened in there?" Alex asked looking over his shoulder.
"Don't know, maybe she was thinking too hard," Nate shrugged leaving Alex completely oblivious to his lie. "Or she might have gotten some bad news."
'He knows something,' Alex thought, 'but what?'
Nate's eyes flicked from the screen to Alex every few seconds, he felt something different towards this one; she was different somehow. He knew he shouldn't let it bother him, but being here, in this relaxed place, it was making him think about things he normally wouldn't. Shifting his thoughts from her, he turned them to Sam and Grace, who were at a table at the other end of the restaurant. He couldn't hear what they were talking about, but they did giggle a lot.
'I see those two are hitting it off quite well,' he thought as he shut the laptop and leaned back in his chair.
After a few minutes he looked over at the clock and pushed the chair back, getting the attention of the two spies. Getting up his trench coat began to grow from the tank top he was wearing. He went upstairs and came back down with the robot Clover, her face was put back on, but the eyes were still closed. Placing her on the floor he sat back down and looked at the other two.
"What are you gonna do with that?" Alex asked eyeing the Clover-bot.
"That is going to be bringing me in," he smirked patting it on its blonde head. "Unconscious and in chains."
"Whadda you mean?"
"It's the only way to get inside WOOHP without drawing attention," he said with a slight sigh.
"But wouldn't they have realized by now that the android's been knocked out?" Sam asked having walked over with Grace.
"Not if it was taken out in such a way that it still broadcast a false signal," the smirk returned as he pushed the front two legs of the chair off the ground. "They always have backup transponders in those bots, they'll just think the main was damaged in a fight."
"What are we doing while she brings you in?"
"You two are going home, by now your mothers must be worried," he let the legs fall to the floor rather hard for the mood he was in. "And you'll have a new friend to explain to her, won't you Sam?"
"W-what do you mean?" she asked as her face turned crimson.
He didn't respond, just smiled a little and glanced between her and Grace, who had also blushed. The only one who looked confused was Alex; even Devin, who was listening from behind the bar, knew what he was talking about. It was no surprise where the picture Nate had of the three girls went; a search of Grace's room would find it there.
"I think you already know what it is I mean, but that's for you to deal with," he stood up and grabbed Clover, placing her face down on the table. A quick tap to the back of her head brought the robot to life.
Her eyes blinked opened and she looked around, finding herself down in the bar she had been in the previous night. Turning her head this way and that, she scanned her surroundings, Sam and Alex were there, as was the target. But something was wrong, he was no longer the target, the HUD (Heads Up Display) behind her eyes labeled him as an ally.
"What happened?" she asked standing up.
"You got knocked out, and I repaired you," Nate explained handing her back the tazer. "You fell on this."
"Oh, that's right, I remember now," she said reading the false memory log. "So, um, what now?"
"Now we go see Jerry," he smiled a very malicious smile.
TBC
Well, that's where I'm ending this one, though most of you probably won't heed my warning above and read this. It stated, last chapter, that I needed a name for the girl, and no one replied, why? It may not matter anymore, but I'd still like to know. It took me almost a month to get a name, and that was only because I contacted a very reliable friend, one who takes fanfiction to levels even I can't fathom. I'll leave it to you people to figure out who it is, he knows who he is. That's it, that's all for me for now, I'll be working on new chapters for other stories, so don't expect to see this one updated till June.