Hellow Fanfic fanatics, Nibbles again. I've really gotten on a ball with this series. It's probably going to be one of my first stories finished in record time, which is pretty sad when you think about it. I guess it's just a shame, since this isn't something I can profit monetarily from. But it has proved to be turning out very good and I like the way the chemistry of certain characters is working.
Any who, this chapter is aimed to be shorter than its predecessors. I have a lot of ground to cover still and we haven't even reached the first climactic arc yet! As always I do not own MLaaTR or Warhammer 40,000, etc, etc. Please R&R!!! I needs to know hows I'm doings XP. (Unproffesionallity!!! [Nor is that a word .]) Enjoy chapter V!
There was a tense silence in the van. Jenny sat in the passenger's seat, her arms crossed and angrily gazing out the window. Her mother, Nora Wakemen, was furiously clutching the steering wheel. There was a look of distain on her face; it was slightly justified, but still an overreaction. Without taking her furious eyes off the road, Nora broke the silence first.
"I am very disappointed in you XJ-9," she said, stating the obvious, Jenny rolling her eyes. "You turned off all communication. We've talked about this! You're strictly prohibited to ever separate from the communication line. What if-"
"What if what, mom?" barked Jenny, turning to her mother. "What if earth were attacked? What if I might be needed?"
"XJ-9, save it. It's not about that."
"What if the government suddenly wanted me back for some arbitrary reason? Oh heavens no, that's be awful if I were to lose you an opportunity for more leech money. What if I was, god forbid allowed to have a social life out from under the wing of my mother?"
"Jennifer Wakemen, stop it!" shouted Nora, her choler incredibly high
Jenny's eyes widened. She was stunned it's the first time she'd ever referred to her by that name.
"XJ-…. Jenny," Nora Began. "I was a teenager once. I took risks, I did…things that I'm not so proud of, and that I'm very hurt by, still to this day, and I'm pushing 55."
The small, white haired, woman turned to Jenny. Jenny looked at her, extremely guilty and apologetic.
"I just don't want to see you hurt." Nora turned back to the road, obviously fighting back emotions "I don't want to see something happen to you."
"I…I'm sorry mom. I didn't mean to-"
"Save it." Interjected her mother. "That doesn't make me any less angry at you. You will have your communication devises extracted for the weekend. And-"
"What? But you just said-"
"Ah, Jennifer, let me finish." Her mother said with elegance "I will not need to worry about you because you will be at home all weekend, and grounded until further notice."
"What?" argued Jenny leaning into her mom, immediately thinking of Gerardo "That's unfair! I had plans!"
"Tough," said Nora, coldly "You should have thought of that before you lied to me and stayed out past curfew with a boy I've never even heard about. And we haven't even begun to discuss that subject."
Jenny rolled her eyes again. She leaned against the window of the van, mumbling "whatever" under her breath, as her mother ranted on about boys and sex and other things she had no interests in speaking about just right now with her mother. As they finally approached their glass roofed, three story house, Jenny made an observation. Her eyes zoomed in on the door. She gasped lightly.
"Mom, hold on a second." Interrupted Jenny
"Excuse me?" said her mother angrily turning of the car
"I-I think we've been broken into."
"What?" her mother's expression not much different than her own.
Nora reached into the glove department and pulled out a small, stripped hand-pistol loaded it with a clip also in the glove department.
"Always be prepared" she said. "Stay behind me."
Her gaze was met by that of a disapproving Jenny.
"Fine," said her mother, rolling her eyes from behind thick, tinted glasses "You lead"
Jenny stepped out of the vehicle and pulled her jacket off in one smooth motion. Her arm transformed into a tri-probed ray-gun. I small weapon but far from minor, it was one of the few Gerardo did not strip from her once she went under for the body work. As the tall teenager and her short counterpart reached the front step they realized that they have indeed been broken into. The door had been kicked in, even with double bolt locks. The door sat in its closed position, the bolts resting on the splintered wood frame.
Jenny pushed the door open and immediately switched to night vision, her house/observatory now awash with green light, illuminating every once barren corner. Her eyes scanning every corner with appropriate, inhuman accuracy; she found nothing out of place. She switched to heat vision. The walls with thinner insulation turned gossamer. The green house was now blue, with only the occasional deep red foot print. Someone is still here, thought Jenny.
Her mother, was once a military operative, a mechanical engineer for the marine corp. Nora used her training for the first time in front of Jenny. For a small, old woman, she seemed to move very swiftly, making signals with her hands every time they turned the corner that even Jenny had to dig deep to remember. It was kind of cool. Even her old age her mother still had the potential bad ass material deep inside.
After sweeping most of the downstairs, they reached the hall that lead to the kitchen. Rays of light blue light reached out into the dark corridor. Jenny turned off her heat vision, only to notice that it was the refrigerator light. Jenny raised an eyebrow in intrigue as she put her back to the wall and crept up to the corner. Her pigtail opened in a cone like shape, a high pitched sonic wave shot out from it and bounced off the back wall and into the kitchen. After a brief moment the wave bounced back. There was an obstruction; the invader was in their kitchen.
Jenny nodded to her mother and she nodded back. The tri-ray on Jenny's arm charged, arcs of lightning jumped in between the synapses of the weapon. Nora simple cocked her pistol and the two girls of separate generations made full swat turns into the kitchen. A man of below average height, still sadly taller than Nora, was standing within their home. His bald head gleamed in the refrigerator light; he wore an all black suit, and a black overcoat. He was eating noodles out of a container that had the words "MOM" written on them in big black letters. His hazel eyes peered over a pair of blue-tinted glasses that sat on the end of his nose.
"Hey," spoke the man in a gruff yet relaxed voice "What's up?"
"Your liquefied remains on my ceiling, that's what's up" Threatened Jenny.
"Really?" he said wiping his salt and pepper goatee "That sounds like a bad idea"
At that moment, Jenny heard the charge of an electric weapon, not unlike her own, from behind her. She turned around to see the sound, she saw a tall man in a white suit and a pair of classic black sunglasses. He was handsome; smooth tanned flesh, with rugged yet refined features. His grin was pure white and extremely huge. Two fangs proximately protrude themselves from the order of his regular smile. One hand rested calmly in his jacket pocket while the other was twisted into a malformed, arcane, black gun and was pointed at her mother. The man grinned devilishly as volts of yellow electricity jumped from the exposed electrodes of his arm.
"Feds." said Dr. Wakemen with a cobra's venom, looking back at the man-thing agent that placed his massive gun on by her head.
"You might want to put your weapon away, Miss." Said the man in white in a southern accent "Unless you want to be scrapping bits of your mother off of the walls of your house."
"Release her!" shouted Jenny, her weapon charging, about to fire on the man in white.
"Jenny," said Nora calmly, dropping her own gun "Do as the man says."
Jenny, still eager to protest, begrudgingly lowers her weapon and then transforms it back into her normal, girlish hand. The man in white still grinned as his weapon arm began to disintegrate. What appeared to be black smoke enveloped the hand until it transformed back into a black humanoid hand, from there it transmuted into human flesh. Jenny watched in amazement at the man-thing's spectacular arm.
"Tasty details, dude." Spoke the man in black as he crossed next to the man in white. "Not that I didn't just eat."
The man in white still grinned and said nothing.
"What the hell do you two want, and why couldn't it have waited until morning?" barked Nora.
"My dearest apologies, Dr. Wakemen, but we don't give a shit about you right now." Said the man in white with his suave southern draw and through his wicked smile "We want to speak with Earth Defense Unit XJ-9, and we don't want anyone else."
Jenny said nothing; she only glared at the two cocky and untouchable government officials that had been sent to probe their home for god knows what.
"And we won't take no for an answer." Said the Man in black.
"Excuse me, where are my manners." Said the man in white, his wording thick of irony. "You can call me Mr. Black, my colleague here, is Mr. White. That's all the information about us you need to know."
"What the hell do you want?" Barked Jenny.
"Oh, feisty." Said the one called Mr. White, grinning sadistically. "Just the way I like 'em"
Jenny cringed at the thought.
"We have been sent by the federal government, to well, spy on you." Said Mr. Black
"You son of a bitch," retorted Jenny "What gives you the right?"
"We're the damn FBI, honey." Said White
"Exactly," spoke Black, attempting to be less perverted than his partner, yet this was not helped do to his constant grin "And we've noticed, in previous months, that you have undergone some, transformations. This is rather obvious by looking at your… body."
Jenny winced at the agents, a confirming hand on her wrist from her mother calming her.
"And we are quite aware that this operation was done, illegally. We want to know who it was that did the procedure."
"It was me," interjected Nora protectively
"As if," laughed White "We've seen the random withdraws in your, government funded, bank account, Ms. Wakemen. Nice try but no cigar."
"Is this what all this is about? A fucking body reconstruction?" Nora looked up with at her daughter with a wry face, a sign of disapproval at her unprovoked language problem.
"Sadly, no." said White
"We have reason to believe that your daughter is interacting with a dangerous alien life form." Finished Black
Jenny felt her body cringe, a sign of worry and guilt. Gerardo does work at an interstellar trader's bar. But would that be reason enough to involve the Government?
"What does that exactly mean?" spoke Nora softly
"We're not quite sure at this moment. But we know that something is here, in Tremorton, and at one point has associated with it. We don't know what it is or what it wants but its here for a very important purpose, whatever that may be." White said his grin fading.
"So what you're saying is there might be a threat you know nothing about." Said Nora with a sarcastic overtone
"Ma'am," said White "Don't get snippy with us."
"Let's put it this way," said Black nicely "We know what we're looking for, and you're not authorized to tell you."
"We'll keep an eye out." Said Nora
"Thank you ma'am," said White putting a black fedora on his bald head "We'll send for someone to fix your door."
The two turned and headed for the front door with no sense of error about them. They felt untouchable, and they knew that they were. Jenny was absolutely filled with raged. She wanted to punch a hole through someone, which she was very capable of doing.
"Do believe any word of what they just said?" asked Jenny through her gritted teeth.
"Not a chance." Answered her mother. "They were looking for something…"
The drones had been digging for days. The tunnels were only getting more winding and labyrinth. Runes etched the ancient walls of the tomb, ones similar to that of the obelisk that marked the entrance. Hundreds of scarabs dug for miles on end, looking for one sacred and most likely heavily guarded artifact. Ancient rooms carved in rock eons ago, each holding grounds for a long decayed species. Miles of black, ashen corridors that have been caved in and shrunken with build-up of calcium and minerals unknown to man, and for that matter, the Cluster.
Cassius paced the corridors, overlooking the endangered species of the cluster drones. He watched them dig for days, blasting contracted corridors and destroying weathered, rock doors. They had gotten nowhere, and he had begun to lose his already short patients.
"Where the hell is it?" shouted Cassius his enraged and accented voice booming throughout the miles of rock carved tunnel. Cassius reached the nearest drone up over his head and ripped it in two, despite its feeble screams and cries of protest.
"We've searched everywhere!" shouted the tarnished machine, firing a laser protruding out of his arm in one of the drones fleeing in terror.
"It has to be here," this time Cassius turned his hand into a saw and sliced through a nearby drone. "All the research. All those documents can't be wrong. My love, Vexus, has never been wrong!"
"I refuse to let her die!" he fired a missile down a hallway toward an un-expecting drone. The drone ducked and the missile shot by hitting a wall a few meters further down the corridor. A massive hole appeared where the wall once was. A mass of Cluster drones moved into view the gaping hole. Cassius watched angrily as the group of scarabs abandoned their duties.
"Back to work you overgrown, pill-bug, bastard children!" shouted Cassius hatefully firing his laser weapon into the rock above him.
Few of the drones listened. This angered Cassius, he stormed over to the group of awestricken drones and as he turned his arms into circular saws. He raised the weapons up, prepared to cleave the minions to pieces, but before he could bellow his eyes caught what was on the other side of the opening. He dropped his arms and instantly forgot his blind rage. The opening leaded to a massive cavern that dropped almost a kilometer down. The cavern was carved in, and completely undamaged like the rest of the tomb. The massive room was lined with hundreds of obelisks across the floor.
Cassius turned on the jets within his feet and flew down to the floor level. The stone errections stood at least a meter above the head of the already tall Cassius. He walked down the rows of pyramid-like stone pillars. After a few moments of amazement, Cassius had finally found his goal. A massive green light shone brightly down to a single black pillar that stood less than a meter tall. He moved toward it, not sure if his eyes had registered exactly what he was seeing correctly.
After a few moments, Cassius had reached the small pedestal. The Nercronian symbol was carved with unnatural accuracy into the face of the pedestal. Atop of the pillar, lay a shining glass sphere. An object so simple, so small and insignificant, it can't be the source of such power. Cassius stood over the sphere his reflection shone in it clearly. At first he hesitated to grab the orb. His mind creating bizarre scenarios that had been inspired by the research and myths, but despite this, he grabbed the orb slowly, his rusting gold hand enveloping the orb. As he held the sphere in his hand visions of intense knowledge filled his brain. It was only for the split second, but he learned so much. His posture corrected and his language rectified. Menial and large, he learned things about the universe he never thought possible.
Cassius shivered at the feeling of such immense power. The feeling of this grand unveiling was borderline orgasmic. He now knew that what he held in his hands was the object that would save his world, his people, and his love. He held in his hand the most dangerous and powerful artifact in the universe. He held the resurrection orb of the Necrons and with it; he would awaken gods, and move mountains.