Note: I own nothing. No copyright is owned or implied. In the first chapter, I included one or two references to the Tomorrow People. This was before I learned there was going to be a new Tomorrow People series. It will be interesting to see how the new series is, as that will determine exactly which TP series I was making reference to. :)
Anyway, enjoy chapter 2:
The thing half embedded in the mud, was once a human. In life, it had been a man who had been unfortunate enough to be bitten during the outbreak a day before the town of Jasper, Nevada had been burned to the ground. Shortly after being bitten, he died, but the infection did not stop. His body continued to try to feed, even while the rest of the living humans tried to kill him stripping his body of his legs, but failing to deliver the headshot that would kill the infection. The infection continued to progress, even then.
Then the firestorm came and the legless body was lost in the sludge and the mud. The unintentional camouflage saved the infected corpse from the sweeps made by the foot soldiers.
After the fire and the soldiers, there was no more food to consume, so the body went dormant even while the infection continued to alter the infected body. The infection continued and the body stopped decomposing. With more food, maybe the infection would be able to continue to restructure the body, but it was an academic problem because there was no more food.
A sound echoed across the plains. The sound of an explosion in the distance.
The infected body acted on an ingrained instinct, and began to move again. Ever so slowly it's arms started to pull it in the direction of the sound. In the direction where food could be found.
0oOo0
"So, where is Rook?" Kevin asked. He was seated behind the wheel of his car speeding down a seldom used interstate highway. Gwen sat in the passenger seat with a familiarity that Ben found somewhat disquieting. Kevin was his friend (former enemy) and Gwen was his favorite cousin (former producer of cooties and ruiner of vacations) and he wanted happiness for both of them, but the thought of them together… No… He didn't want to think about that now. He forced his mind back to viewing a world where sex did not exist. (Especially since he wasn't getting any.)
"He's off planet somewhere on some Plumber mission," Ben answered nonchalantly. He didn't like sitting in the back seat of Kevin's car. It was just not comfortable for long road trips.
"Here is the turn off," Gwen said, and Kevin turned, driving the car off the road and onto open desert.
"Where are we going again?" Ben asked… desperately trying to ask 'Are we there yet?'
"The middle of nowhere," Kevin answered. "Seriously, there are no towns around this place anymore. There use to be, but it was wiped off all the maps a few years ago."
"Uh-huh… " Ben said. "And why did you need me?"
"Don't you miss spending time with us?" Gwen tried to change the subject.
"Backup." Kevin answered.
"Well, there is no way I can back out now, so tell me exactly what the deal is, Kevin," Bed demanded.
"I may have seen the light and lead an honest life," Kevin said, "But I still keep tabs on some of my old business rivals."
"Go on…" Ben said suspiciously.
"Well, apparently, somewhere out here in the middle of nowhere is a mother load of alien tech. I'm sure that my former rival has gone over the place… and same with the government, but they don't have our experience, and may have missed something."
"Do you seriously expect me to help you score some alien tech to sell on the black market?" Ben demanded, "Gwen, are you really oaky with this?"
"That's not why we are going Ben," Gwen said. "We need to find out what kind of tech may have been looted from this site. It could mean some bad stuff is already on the black market, and you know you will have to deal with it sooner or later, so you may as well find out what it is going to be."
"Exactly," Kevin said.
Kevin slammed on the breaks, bringing the car to a halt before a fence. "Didn't expect this," Kevin said.
The three of them got out of the car and studied the reinforced chain link fence.
"Unit E… No Tresspassing by order of the United States Government… Biohazard…" Kevin mumbled to himself.
"What's that Kevin?" Ben asked.
"Dude, read the signs," Kevin pointed to the fence. "Active Mine Field…"
"Forget the signs," Gwen said, "Can you smell that? Actually, can't you feel that? This fence is electrified… Beyond lethal levels."
"I bet there's alarms too," Kevin said, fishing a device out of his pocket. He turned it on, and placed it in the ground near the fence. "This should take care of any alarms."
"I'll get the fence," Ben said.
"What about the signs?" Gwen said, "It's not safe."
"Come on," Ben said, "I'm a hero. Those signs are just suggestions."
Gwen sighed and rolled her eyes.
Ben flipped through holographic faces that hovered just above the watch like Omnitrix that he wore on his wrist. He found the one he wanted, then slammed down to activate it. "Diamondhead!" Ben shouted after body changed into a massive seven foot tall alien with a greenish diamond-hard crystalline skin.
"Do you have to shout your alien names every time?" Kevin asked.
"Of course," Ben said, "It's cool."
Kevin rolled his eyes, but Ben didn't notice. He walked up to the fence, and with a shower of sparks, cut a huge gash in the fence large enough for the three of them to pass through unharmed.
"Come on, guys," Ben said, in the deeper voice of Diamondhead.
"Go on, we'll catch up," Kevin said. Gwen glared up at him, questioningly.
"Wait for it," Kevin whispered to her.
"OW!" Ben shouted as part of his diamond hard foot was shattered by a landmine. The sound of the explosion echoed across the landscape.
"Hmm… didn't someone say something about a mine field?" Kevin asked, "Oh, that's right. I did."
"Ha ha," Ben responded while focusing on re-growing his crystalline leg.
"Fine, Ill take care of the minefield for you," Gwen said. She raised her arms and a purple energy bar appeared on the ground at Ben's feet. With a flick of her wrist, the energy expanded, then moved across the ground, generating more explosions as it dedicated the mines along its path. "It should be safe enough now… Ben, you stay in front."
0OoO0
"Why did they put up that fence?" the once again human Ben asked as they continued to trudge through the desert. "There is nothing here! We could of at least brought the car."
"Well, you didn't open the fence wide enough for the car… besides, I didn't want my wheels blown up," Kevin said.
"Are you guys both blind?" Gwen asked.
"What?" Kevin asked.
"Look up," she answered.
Up ahead loomed a massive tower, easily as tall as the mesas that were beyond it. It was massive, and dark, almost black, with assorted spires and windows that lined the sides of the tower, along with what looked like landing pads. The tower also looked like it had taken a hefty amount of damage, although they were too far away to tell if the damage was from human or alien weaponry, it could just as easily been caused by both.
In addition to the damage to the tower, the mesa nearest to it also looked to have been bombed, although Kevin insisted it had the earmarks of a massive energy weapon.
The tiredness of the journey was lost as they continued to stare up at the tower that seemed to grow ever taller as they approached it.
"No wonder the fence was so far away, this thing is massive. They sure wouldn't want anyone seeing this by chance," Kevin said.
"Actually Kevin," Gwen said, "from what I have been able to figure out, the fence went up before Darkmount ever appeared."
"Darkmount?" Ben asked.
"Well… that is what a few people on the net have called it," Gwen answered. "Look at the ground… it doesn't look like the tower was built on the ground, but more like it was grown out of the Earth."
"Yeah… If you could find a way to make steel grow. Must have been some advanced building process that we haven't seen before. We could patent it!"
"Kevin, that is not why we are here!" Gwen said sternly.
"Right," Kevin said slyly, "We are here because you missed the adventures we use to have traveling with Ben."
"So you guys just missed me?" Ben said, smirking.
"Great," Gwen said, now he will be insufferable.
0oOo0
"These corridors are huge… I could be Waybig and still not be able to reach the celings," Ben said as he studied the corridor the three of them walked down in amazement."
"What sort of aliens built this?" Gwen asked.
"I bet its Cybertronian," Kevin said. "Nearly extinct, and they are good at blending in, so its rare to even hear about them."
"So what sort of equipment could be scavenged from this site?" Gwen asked what Ben was thinking. It was plain to see that the site had already been heavily looted, panels had been ripped open, and places were empty that looked like they should have held equipment.
"That's the bad news… Plasma blasters, Null Rays, all sorts of nasty devices. One of the reasons Cybertronians are nearly extinct is that they spent the past few million years in a civil war," Kevin said. "The good news is that most of their tech doesn't operate on standard power supplies, you need some exotic crystalline energy to make it operate. Fat chance of finding that on a closed world like Earth."
"Wait," Ben said, "Gwen stay back here; Kevin, what is that up there?"
Ben and Kevin found what Ben thought he saw, even though he hoped he wouldn't. It was a body, and from the looks of it, one that had been dead for some time; weeks at least. Ben was pretty sure the cause of death was the bullet wound to the head.
"Good news and bad news," Kevin said.
"Does everything have to come with bad news?" Ben asked. "Fine, what's the good news?"
"My old rival Forrester won't be selling alien tech on the black market anymore."
"Cheerful. What about the bad news?" Ben asked.
Kevin pointed to the remains of a shattered crate that the body was laying across. "Looks like the place was looted by M.A.R.S."
"MARS?" Ben asked, "What is that? Some sort of Forever Knights wanna be group that Ill need to beat up on?"
"Are you totally stupid?" Kevin said, "MARS is only the largest weapons manufacturing company on the planet. They sell to every government there is, and even a few terrorist groups. I can see why they would want this tech, so I guess it's a good thing they won't be able to make any of it work."
"Yeah," Ben said, "Lets get out of here."
oO0Oo
"Amaturish," Agent K said, kneeling down holding a small device he had found imbedded in the ground. "Stupid, clumsy and amateurish," he said again, "They have no idea what they did."
All Agent J saw was a partly detonated mine field, and a good size hole torn into the chain link fence. He also saw the tire tracks where a car had once parked. It still looked like it had been some time ago It had been more than a month since the last rain in the area.
K pointed to some slightly fresher tracks in the sand where it looked like something had dragged itself through the hole in the fence and kept going off into the distance. "They let something out! We will need to contact Unit E. Get them to fix the fence, and maybe tell us what it is that managed to escape."
