238 Red Alert [Nicole]
238 Red Alert [Nicole]
It had been a couple of days since the attempted assassination on Nick, and I was furious. Furious at the audacity of it. Furious at how close it had been. And furious that George had vanished on me so suddenly.
“This is Company Command Center,” the Operations Controller said crisply, eyes glued to his board. “Do we have eyes on the target? Copy that. Stay on your position, secure the perimeter, and prevent any civilians from nearing the premises.”
He turned toward me. “Ma’am, the area is secured. We have five minutes before the local SRC figures out something’s going on.”
Another controller spoke up from her station, tension obvious in her voice. “Ma’am, our systems are being hacked. We’re not technologically savvy enough to—”
“Excuses,” I snapped. “Bring in a technopath.”
“I—I’m a technopath, ma’am, but—”
I pinched the bridge of my nose and exhaled sharply. “Do anything you can. Slow them down. I don’t care how.”
The main monitor dissolved into static. Our CCTV feeds blinked out one by one, drones going blind mid-hover. Whoever the target was, their technopathic reach was too good.
I shifted my focus and let Silver’s vision bleed into mine.
The alley came into view. Narrow, grimy, boxed in by stacked concrete and rusted fire escapes. Ironflesh stood at one end, broad as a wall, his skin already taking on that dull metallic sheen. Goblin blocked the other path, hunched behind a researcher-rated weapon that hummed softly, impatiently.
Above them, Silver stood on the ledge, looking down.
Below, the suspect.
Dark skin. Curly dark hair. A presence that felt wrong in a way I couldn’t quite articulate. This was the woman who had been digging into the Company, who had infiltrated Markend and made contact through channels that should have been invisible to anyone outside our inner circle. George’s contacts. George’s routes.
That alone made my stomach tighten.
I had sent Silver in as my representative, my eyes and voice on the field. Onyx was hidden nearby, silent and coiled, ready. Even with our tech blinded, our psychic network still held. It wasn’t perfect, but it was enough.
Silver wore a smooth white mask, sculpted from imagination and will. I spoke through her.
“Someone on the run?” I said coolly, my voice echoing out of Silver’s mouth. “That’s not going to cut it. I’m afraid we’ll have to take you in.”
The woman looked up, unfazed. Her gaze tracked Silver precisely, despite the interference cloaking her form.
“I advise against any hostile actions,” the woman said evenly. “It will compromise us and likely hinder any chance at mutual cooperation.”
Us. Interesting choice of word.
She went on, her tone calm, almost diplomatic. “I suggest we meet personally and establish rapport first. I’ll be frank. I came here looking for Eclipse. At the very least, let me speak to him.”
I almost laughed.
Yeah, I would have loved to speak to him too. But Nick was somewhere even I couldn’t reach right now, unless he chose to let me in. And I hated that fact more than I could put into words.
The woman didn’t run immediately.
“There is a right place and time for conversation,” she said. “This is not it. I will send an encrypted message to you through one of George’s channels.”
That made my eyes narrow.
“What’s your relationship to George?” I asked.
“He saved me.”
I paused, then said flatly, “You should’ve started with that.”
It didn’t mean I believed her. Not fully. But my empathy brushed against her emotional state, and I felt no deception there. Still, the world was large, and people survived by telling partial truths.
“Even so,” I said coldly, “it’s better if I take you in.”
I reached out and cast migraine, a focused psychic strike meant to drop even hardened capes to their knees. It washed over her, and did nothing.
She didn’t even flinch.
My breath hitched. My telepathy slid off her like water on steel.
“She’s mostly machinery,” I realized out loud.
The woman exploded into motion. The wall behind her caved in as she launched herself through it with terrifying strength. Debris sprayed across the alley.
“Target’s moving!” someone shouted.
Goblin surged after her, weapon whining as it discharged. Explosions echoed, sharp and concussive.
I snapped, “Operations, tell me about the buildings around that alley.”
“An abandoned bakery, toy store, and a civilian residential block,” an Operations Controller replied quickly.
I was already tracking through Onyx’s vision. The woman was on a bike now, tearing onto the highway like she’d memorized the city’s veins. Silver phased through the broken wall after her, never losing sight.
I reached out to Ironflesh. “We don’t need you there anymore. Good work. Stand by in case something new happens. Thank you for your cooperation, Ironflesh.”
There was a pause, then his calm, gravelly reply came back. “I’ll leave my capes to you.”
“Thank you,” I answered. “I appreciate the Seamark’s assistance. I will personally deal with the compensation for this matter.”
Seamark and the Company stood on paper as equals, but the truth was messier. Still, civility bought loyalty, and loyalty bought time.
Goblin stumbled back into view not long after, half his mask shattered.
“S-Sorry, ma’am,” he stammered. “She got away—”
Silver was suddenly there. She grabbed Goblin’s arm, twisted sharply, pried the weapon free, and slammed ‘Goblin’ down onto the pavement in one smooth motion. Silver kicked the blaster-like device away before it could activate.
“I suggest you cooperate,” I said.
The body beneath Silver flickered and then unraveled.
The goblin mask dissolved into light, and the same dark-skinned woman lay there instead. Advanced hologram-based shapeshifting. Far beyond black-market grade.
Onyx’s voice cut in. “Found Goblin. Unconscious by the sidewalk.”
I saw Onyx fix the mask back onto Goblin’s face, careful, almost gentle. No fatal injuries. Just pride and bruises.
“Operations Control,” I ordered, “have mundane personnel retrieve Goblin. He’s been incapacitated.”
I reached out telepathically to the remaining Seamark capes. “Stay on your posts. Fence duty. If anything goes wrong, I need immediate reaction.”
“Ma’am,” an Operations Controller suddenly said, panic creeping into her voice, “our comms are shut down!”
Of course they were.
I could only maintain so many psychic links at once, even with Silver and Onyx acting as relays. The rest would have to rely on mundane coordination.
“Sunny,” I sent telepathically, “retrieve your friend. Goblin has been incapacitated.”
“Copy that,” came the reply.
Silver tightened her grip on the woman. That was when the woman finally spoke again, calmly, almost politely.
“Let’s negotiate a time and place for this.”
Before I could respond, the lights in the Command Center died.
Total blackout.
A second later, power snapped back on.
Every monitor lit up at once.
George’s face filled the screens.
My heart dropped into my stomach.
“George…?” I whispered.
He didn’t speak. He just blinked.
Once. Twice. Again.
Morse code.
I grabbed a pen and paper with shaking hands, translating instinctively as the pattern burned itself into my mind.
[They’ve found me. I have to go. Go to this address: 1425 Alderway Drive]
“George, no—” I started.
The monitor exploded.
Glass and sparks showered the room, alarms screaming as smoke filled the air.
Silver suddenly cried out, “Ah, come on!”
I frowned. “What’s happening?”
I blinked… and Silver was gone. My pulse spiked. The woman was gone too.
I immediately shifted my focus to Onyx. “Status.”
“I’m hot in pursuit,” Onyx replied, her voice tight. Through our link, I saw the woman vault onto a bike and tear down the street. Onyx revved her own bike and chased after her without hesitation.
I pulled Silver back to me, reconstituting her beside my desk. “What happened?”
She folded her arms, looking annoyed more than shaken. “She poked my eyes and tore my heart out. Definitely Eclipse’s friend.”
I stared at her. “She what?”
Silver shrugged. “Pulled it clean out.”
For a moment, I just stood there, incredulous. I hadn’t thought pulling out hearts was still an Eclipse-adjacent habit. That was old-school Nick. Back when subtlety was optional.
Silver added, more thoughtfully, “I don’t think she really meant harm. She was probably aware I’m a psychic construct.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “You’re defending someone who just killed you.”
Silver tilted her head. “But I’m alive, though?”
I didn’t have a rebuttal for that.
“I don’t want to escalate,” said the woman. “Please turn around.”
“That’s rich,” Onyx snapped. “Of course you do! You killed Silver!”
Silver, standing right next to me, raised a hand. “Again, still alive.”
Onyx didn’t respond. She was focused. Through her telepathic link, I saw her lean forward as she activated the plasma bolt mounted at the front of her bike. A streak of energy tore through the air toward the fleeing woman.
The woman spun mid-ride and fired the stolen blaster with unnerving precision. The shots collided, detonating in a violent explosion that rocked the street. Onyx’s bike wobbled hard. With superhuman agility, Onyx leapt off before it could crash and conjured another bike beneath her feet in one fluid motion.
I grimaced. Even after all this time, watching psychic constructs casually rewrite reality still felt bizarre.
“Onyx,” I said firmly, “she’s tough. Hit her with the plasma bolt again. She can take it.”
“That’s not how it works,” Onyx shot back. “This bike is purely telekinetic. No plasma bolts.”
I exhaled sharply. “That sounded very convenient. Then hit her with telekinesis.”
“That’s not how my telekinesis works either,” Onyx snapped, then sighed. “But fine.”
She surged forward and began ramming the woman’s bike from behind, disrupting her balance. The woman twisted around and fired again, but Onyx leaned hard to the right, dodging the shot by inches.
A civilian car got clipped, flipped onto its side, and skidded across the road. I heard screaming through the telepathic link.
“Damn it,” I muttered.
I opened a channel to a Seamark cape. “I’m sending you a live location. Assist with minimizing collateral. There’s a car overturned on Sixth Street, handle it now.”
“Copy,” came the response. “FeMuscle out.”
I switched channels again, reaching out telepathically. “Hey, Alice.”
“It’s Mira,” came the annoyed correction.
“I need someone on the field to help reduce collateral,” I said. “Now.”
There was a brief pause. “Fine. I know where to go.”
I turned my attention back to Onyx. “Hey! Take this more seriously. Grab her with telekinesis!”
Onyx practically snarled through the link. “If it’s so easy, then you do it!”
Before I could retort, Silver spoke up beside me, laughing nervously. “Ha ha ha… she doesn’t mean it. Our psychic abilities are a combination of low to mid-tier powers converging into an idea. It’s reality warping, basically. We can only create things that are realistically possible from the mind, and research-grade weapons are, by definition, unrealistic, so…”
I closed my eyes and sighed. “Yeah. I understand.”
I just didn’t like it.
Griffin landed hard in front of the fleeing woman, asphalt spiderwebbing beneath her boots as her crimson wings flared wide, stretching outward like a living barricade. Dust and debris washed over the street. Griffin’s voice rang out, cold and absolute. “Dullahan, you are under arrest.”
My stomach dropped.
Dullahan. As in that Dullahan? A member of the Ten. A confirmed kill, sealed, archived, buried. She was supposed to be dead. Not only alive, but standing there with a head, skin, and an identity that clearly wasn’t the one on record.
Griffin didn’t wait for a response. She crossed the distance in a blink and seized Dullahan by the throat, lifting her clean off the bike. The motorcycle skidded wildly, spinning toward a screaming civilian.
Griffin’s tentacle lashed out instinctively, wrapping around the bike midair and arresting its momentum just short of impact. She crushed it against the ground instead.
“Go,” Griffin said sharply.
A mother clutched her daughter and bolted. “T-thanks! Let’s go, Charlie!” They disappeared down the street as fast as their legs could carry them.
Too many onlookers remained, hovering at what they thought was a safe distance, phones half-raised, curiosity outweighing survival instincts.
Onyx skidded in beside them, her bike screeching to a halt. She stood and shouted, “This is official GDF business. If you don’t want to be arrested, be on your way!”
She layered the command with telepathic pressure and empathic suggestion. Panic rippled through the crowd, and most of them scattered immediately.
Griffin glanced sideways at Onyx. “You are not GDF, though.”
Onyx bristled. “Oh, so tentacles now? Let me guess, you like touching yourself with them.”
I closed my eyes and exhaled slowly. Of course. For some reason, Onyx always picked fights with Griffin. For some reason, Griffin always indulged her, like this was some kind of sport.
Griffin smirked faintly. “Yes. Nick taught me lots of fun ways to play with them.”
I winced. She didn’t mean my Nick. She meant the pretender. The copycat Eclipse. That distinction, unfortunately, did nothing for Onyx’s temper.
Onyx snapped, “Bitch, please. You want a fight—”
I didn’t let it finish. I swapped Onyx out with Silver in an instant.
Silver appeared mid-gesture, eyes wide. Through the link, I felt her spike of panic. “I don’t want a fight,” she blurted out. “Peace?”
Dullahan finally spoke, her voice flat, almost mechanical. “Please, let me go. They found me. I can’t stay here any longer. I must hide.”
Silver hesitated, then asked carefully, “Who found you?”
A ‘different answer’ arrived before Dullahan could respond.
A portal tore open to their right with a thunderous crack, reality folding inward as metal screamed through the breach. A tank burst out onto the street, treads chewing through asphalt.
A towering lizard-man in a military uniform stood atop it, a red armband stitched with a swastika glaringly visible. He raised his fist and roared, “Blut und Ehre!”
Griffin turned her head slightly, eyes narrowing. “You mean them?”
Dullahan replied, still emotionless, “No. That’s not them. I don’t even know who the lizard is.”
“Angriff, meine Genossen, für die NSD und den Führer!” the lizard-man bellowed.
Soldiers poured out from behind the tank, energy weapons already glowing as they opened fire down the street. I covered my face with my palm, swearing under my breath. This had escalated past absurd and straight into catastrophic.
“Ah, shit,” I muttered. “Forget the Entity. The world might as well end sooner.”
I straightened and raised my voice, letting command bleed into every channel I had. “It’s an invasion. Red alert. RED ALERT!”