MAU: Infinite Crisis, part 7
By: Set3

Earlier in the day, Peter pulled some favours to switch shifts with Wait so now he had the graveyard shift. As he walked in the now empty main laboratory, his sight immediately locked on the girl still suspended in the mesh enclosure. Peter grimaced, it was like they were treating the girl like some animal. No, worse than an animal, animals tended to be fed. Pater had asked around a few times and no one could tell him when the girl last ate. The door closed behind him and he started walking to the cage. He shifted the contents he'd been carrying to one hand as he made his way through the two sets of mesh doors of the cage and stopped in front of the girl.

As he looked at the girl, her head was drooped down, not appearing to notice him when he came in. Peter stood there a moment, trying to keep his anger down, and reached up to wake her up. Just as he touched her she pulled back as much as she could with a whimper before settling back down with a blank look on her face staring at nothing. Peter had pulled back in surprise at her reaction.

"What the hell have they been doing to you?" Peter asked as he looked back behind him imagining he was staring straight at Wait. He again swallowed his anger as he turned back to the girl. He shuffled the contents he had been carrying and opened one of them, a sandwich, and held it up to her, "I hope you don't mind turkey. It was the only kind they had left in the café today."

The girls response was as immediate as the one where she shied away earlier. Her eyes fixated on the sandwich as she tilted her head forward trying to get a bite. Peter held the sandwich closer to her and she practically inhaled it. Peter barely pulled his hand back as the girl only just nicked his finger with her teeth as she finished eating.

"Hungry aren't you?" he joked weakly while shaking his hand. He then opened the bottle of water he was also holding and held it up. She drank the water down greedily and soon the bottle was empty. It was night and day after he offered the girl food and water. She seemed much livelier now but she was still subdued.

After a minute, Peter finally spoke up, "So, what's your name? In all the excitement during the times we've met, I've never had the chance to ask you." She stared at him trying to decide if she should tell him. After all, he was, in a big way responsible for her current predicament.

"Noel," she said finally, "My name's Noel."

"Hello Noel," Peter said with a smile.

"I suppose you think you've earned a feel too," Noel spat out.

Peter's face fell, "I had nothing to do with that," he said. He then went to check her restraints and made a show of tightening them. "But, I'm still ashamed that a man like him could be called a soldier," he said as he left Noel's cage did his rounds around the lab before returning to the main console checking the readouts from the leads attached to Noel's connectors.

John, Major, and Andria had quickly gathered their supplies, mostly modified swat gear, and followed Agent G to his waiting car. They dumped their gear into the trunk and piled in. John, the look-a-like that he is now, had to wear a hat and shades to disguise himself from his unintended fame as they drove through the city from the outskirts to the airport. With Agent G's credentials, they quickly passed through security and walked out to a waiting C-130 Hercules military transport plane. As they boarded, John noticed it had Canadian markings .

As they were stowing their gear, a woman came down from the cockpit who was dressed respectively like Agent G.

"Hello everyone," she said as she began shaking the hands of John, Major, and Andria as they check their gear, "My name is Johanna Mars, I'm a representative of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, or CSIS for short, Agent G has told me about your team."

John nodded, assuming the role of spokesman for their group, "A pleasure to meet you but, why is the Canadian government letting us come along? Apparently, you guys are well within your rights to take this on your own," he queried.

Johanna gave him a small smile, "It would have been if not for the details that your liaison provided me with. From what I've leafed through, Henry is an extremely dangerous person and your group has had the most experience in dealing with him. Speaking of which," she paused to look the group over again, "I thought there were four in your group."

John looked embarrassed, "Yeah, our leader," he said stretching the word, "decided to go on ahead. He'll meet up with us when we get there."

Johanna just nodded as she made her way to her seat and strapped in. John, Major and Andria followed suit and strapped in beside Agent G who was already seated. As the transport took off, Johanna turned to them.

"We're going to do a quick stop over at a military base in the Alberta Rockies to pick up more personnel we'll need," she explained. "I hope you all brought something to read because we'll be travelling for a few hours."

Andria groaned as she realised she would have nothing to do and stared daggers at both John and Major who'd already pulled out a tablet and began to read. Major noticed Andria's glare and responded by sticking her tongue out at her. Andria just huffed at that before she twisted around to look out the window behind her as the transport began taking off down the runway. Five hours at least with nothing to do.

"Perfect," Andria thought sarcastically.

It was late afternoon now at the main lab in the floating headquarters of Tonoan Industrials and the small number of scientist and researchers went about their assigned tasks taking samples from Noel or studying the materials they were able to gleam from the exo-suit 2 (the Linna suit). Tom and Mike were at the far end of the main lab using the tools and equipment that weren't in available in the lab they kept the exo-suits in. They were currently working on a prototype replication of the exo-suit 2's battery.

"It's a work of art," Tom stated as he placed the battery in a makeshift charger they built specifically for it.

"It really is a triple A battery," Mike countered, "Once the material in the casing is used up, the whole thing becomes useless."

"I think you're looking at it from the wrong perspective," Tom started, "This is actually genius if you think about it. During the tests we did, the prototype battery gave out a uniform amount of power before it depleted. If we can refine it, we can make it last longer. There's also the fact that so far, a depleted battery is environmentally friendly, so no toxic chemicals from a tossed battery."

"Yeah, but so far when we tested the prototype to the power needs of exo-suit 2 it lasts only half an hour," Mike said. "When you factor in the cost of making this and charging it, we're actually loosing money. And no one's going to spend the money to cover the cost of one of these let alone buy them one after another."

"So they'll have to buy wholesale for awhile," Tom said with a smile, "And besides, this is just the prototype design. We're limited by the constraints of the casing we have to put the thing in. You forget that the whole purpose of prototypes is to get the bugs out of the way so the end product will be cheaper."

Mike rubbed his eyes, "Have I ever told you that I hate your optimistic view of everything?"

"Not since yesterday," Tom quipped.

Meanwhile on the bridge Mr. Tonoan had told the bridge crew to begin preparations to cast off and set a course to their shore office in Japan. The crew quickly went about their tasks in gathering supplies for the voyage. It wouldn't be until close to sundown when they finally got underway.

The plane ride was long for John and his team but made longer by Andria's childish antics to pass the time by periodically asking if they were there yet. As they were making the final approach the pilot pushed the controls forward causing the transport to dive downwards at a steep angle, causing Andria especially to scream, while dodging a fighter that had flew over them and sped off ahead before turning back and around coming alongside them. The pilots swearing as he leveled the plane was cut short as he responded to a hail from the now escorting fighter. The co-pilot handed a headset to Johanna.

As Johanna pulled the headset in place she heard a female voice, ".. I repeat, to the unknown bogey. You are entering restricted military airspace. State your confirmation code to proceed. If you do not comply you will be fired upon. This is your final warning."

Johanna signaled the co-pilot that she wanted to return the hail, He flicked a switch and nodded to her and Johanna spoke into the receiver, "This is CSIS agent Johanna Mars, confirmation code: "Black 25, they all came home." Repeat: Black 25, they all came home," she said.

There was a pause on the other end, "Confirmation code accepted," the fighter pulled ahead of the transport, "Follow me in and do not deviate your course or you will be shot down. Clear?"

"Affirmative pilot, we'll stick to your course," she quickly relayed the instructions to the pilots. The military transport adjusted it's course and followed the fighter till it hit the landing strip. The fighter did a touch and go and circled around before landing in behind the transport.

Andria was the first off the transport, having a rash of airsickness due to the sudden dip the plane took just minutes earlier. As soon as she reached the bottom of the ramp she threw up.

"What the hell was that?" Andria asked after she had a moment to compose herself.

Behind them, a service crew came out to the fighter and the pilot had stepped down from the ladder and walked over to them. The crew were already moving the fighter into the nearby hanger.

"It's not everyday CSIS comes to visit us on such short notice," the female pilot said as she pulled her helmet off. For some reason, the woman looked familiar to Andria. "So, to what do we owe the pleasure?" she asked as Johanna came down the ramp.

"Search and rescue," Johanna replied as she handed the pilot a thin file folder. "Is the CSOR team still around?"

The pilot flipped through the few pages that were in the folder, "Yeah, I didn't think they were going to take this long, must be because they spent too much time in the desert," she said as she closed the folder and looked at the group. "They'll be back in fifteen minutes and it'll take a few to refuel your transport so you all may as well come inside and warm up," she said as she turned around and lead them back to the barracks.
John looked to Major who only shrugged and to Andria who was beginning to rub her arms to keep warm and nodded and they followed after Johanna who was already on her way to the building. On entering, they quickly passed through the entryway into the common room where two teenage boys were sitting on a couch playing video games. The pilot excused herself so she could change out of her pilot suit. Andria quickly sat down on a chair beside them.

"So, what are a couple of kids doing at a military base?" she asked.

The two boys paused the game and looked at one another before one of them turned to her, "What kind of base do you think we're in?" the dark haired one asked her.

Andria cocked an eyebrow, "Um, the military kind?" she asked, not certain what he was getting at.

The blond one let out a quick laugh, he scratched his nose with his left hand and held out his right, "Touch one of my fingers," he said. Andria gave him a dirty look. The boy sighed, "This isn't a stupid fart joke, just touch a damn finger and you'll see," he said.

Andria moved her hand towards his and hesitated before poking one with one of hers. As soon as she did so, she received a nasty shock that was five times worse than any static shock she ever had in her life. With a curse, she yanked her hand back and stuck her still smarting finger in her mouth, "God DAMN it! What the hell was that?" she shouted as she shook her hand out.

The blond kid smirked as he held his hand out again, daring her to touch his hand again. Seeing that she only responded with a dirty look, he pulled his hand back with a chuckle, "This whole base is dedicated to house the people who were changed by the alien box. From those who'd be a danger to the populace to those who would be in danger from the people. Our own private resort where we can just be ourselves without having to worry about freaking people out."

"It's a place to keep you all safe," said the pilot woman who just came into the room. Hiding behind her was an eight year old boy. The woman was now wearing a pair of tight jeans and a thin long sleeved dark red turtleneck under an equally tight looking dark brown leather jacket. On her hips were a pair of revolvers and a bandolier of bullets over her belt. "I hope he didn't hurt you too badly," she said as she pats the child's head behind her.

"No, I'm ok. My finger's just a little numb right now," Andria said as she shook her hand again as if to prove her point. Andria stared at the woman, there was something familiar about her when she first saw her and the nagging feeling increased as she saw the woman now. Shaking it off for now, she turned to the blond teen, "I've seen some crazy stuff since I joined Jeffrey's team but I can't for the life of me understand why you'd change yourself that way."

The pilot woman looked at the blond coyly, "Why don't you tell her Eddie?" she asked him.

"I'm tired of explaining myself every time some one new comes along Chris," he grumbled as he turned back to the TV.

Chris, the pilot woman's name, gave him a look, "You shock a guest and just leave it at that? Tell them why you're like that or I'll toss your games outside," she threatened.

Eddie paused and turned back to Chris and saw the look on her face, she wasn't bluffing. And the last time she made the same threat, he found his games in a bag tied to the top of the flag pole. It took him days to get them down. He dropped his controller and sat back in the couch. "I used the alien machine to turn myself into a literal human bug zapper," he droned obviously tired of repeating his story.

"You turned yourself into a human bug zapper because...," Chris urged mockingly.

"I was tired of the damn bugs always flying around me," he began as he started to rant, "No matter what I did, there were always bugs flying around my head dive bombing my face," he had a manic look on his face. "I've bathed and showered before going outside wearing just cleaned clothing too. I've tried every different style of clothing too."

"It was funny seeing him in plaid and polka dot phase," the dark haired teen beside him said with a grin.

Eddie ignored his impute, "I've also tried every single type of diet under the sun thinking that was it. I even tried doing the reverse, not bathing at all."

"I was really happy when he got out of that phase. Let me just say that for awhile we bought out the local supply of air fresheners," the teen beside him said.

"Shut it Cole," Eddie told him, "You know how frustrating it is when you get dive bombed by bugs while the guy next to you who stinks like shit and doesn't have a single one buzz near him. So yeah, when Cole and I found the alien box at first we used it to change ourselves in different ways but when I was about to go outside I thought: "If these bugs want to keep flying at me then fine." Then I used the box to make it so I'll fry every single one of those fucking bugs," he said as he held his hands together as if holding an imaginary bug between them. A few static pops could be heard. "It wasn't until we came back after that the box stopped working. Not a bad way to be stuck either," Eddie finished.

"And then he nearly killed our science teacher by giving him a heart attack when he touched him," Cole said.

"He had it coming anyways, you remember how he liked hitting us with that damn strap. Besides, even after I saved him he actually had the balls to try and sue me," he said dismissively with a wave.

The room fell into an awkward silence until Major spoke up.

"So Cole, what did you change about yourself? You look pretty normal to me. Or is it something under the clothes."

Cole just laughed, "No, I'm still all guy here. I sort of have the same problem Eddie had, not to his extreme but anyways. My body now produces a pheromone that attracts dragonflies. Sometimes I get hired to go to outdoor parties during the summer to keep mosquitoes away."

"Yeah and in the meantime I have to stay here in the middle of bug central," Eddie complained.

John stifled a chuckle and turned to Chris, "And what about the little one behind you? Is he your son?"

Chris smiled mournfully as she looked down at the boy still behind her and ruffled his hair, "He's not my kid. But he's a special case. You see, there are dozens of bases like this one around the country so... If anyone recovers a working box, it gets sent to the nearest base and the person with the worst changes uses it. Our little guy here is first on the list for this base if we ever get an active box. The second is Brandon behind you," she said.

The group turned around and were suddenly faced with a horrific monster. Andria screamed and fell back unto her rear while Major put her hand on her gun at her hip. The monster was tall, about six and a half feet. Its arms and legs were long, too long to be normal for any human. With sickly pale skin and the muscles on it body seemed to be both sunken in showing the bones yet still looked incredibly powerful. It had cleft hoofs for feet and its hands ended in long fingers tipped with deadly black talons. The head on its shoulders resembled more a deer scull than a regular human one. Like the rest of the body, the head had the same sickly skin covering it. It's lips not quite able to close leaving sharp teeth on display. It's predatory eyes were sunken into their cavities. Even the points of the antlers that grew from its head seemed deadly sharp as well.

The terrifying image was offset by the fact it was wearing a bright cheery lavender vest and light green slacks.

"Holy fuck!" Andria exclaimed.

"Meet our resident wendigo. Don't worry, he just likes to meet new people, he kinda gets a kick out of seeing people's reaction to his looks,"
Chris said with amusement, "If you're wondering, he used it during Halloween one year," she explained as the "wendigo" walked off giggling with an eerie voice of a five year old.

John and Major looked at each other while Andria swore as she got back to her feet.

"So, what's wrong with the little guy that he gets to be first in line?" Andria asked.

Chris' face turned sour, "He and two other children were kidnapped by a man who had a working box. After a few days that he abused them he used the box to change them. Later after days of abuse the other two children turned feral and killed him then killed each other. Our little one here was found locked in a cage not long after that."

"How was he changed?" Andria asked, "He looks fine to me."

Chris looked down at the child and gave him a sad smile, "Why don't you show her," she coaxed with a small pat on his back gently pushing him out from behind herself. The boy looked at the new people then back up at Chris shyly. "It's ok, I won't let anything bad happen to you," She assured him with a smile.

The boy breath deeply in and out through his nose and timidly stepped forward towards Andria. Andria kneeled down and leaned closer but the boy pushed her back. He looked up at her face and opened his mouth. As he open his mouth, his cheeks split open and his jaw lowered and ten two circular saw blades came out and began spinning while grinding against each other to produce an inhuman metallic scream. Andria, with a cry of surprise bolted upwards taking a few steps back. The boy closed his mouth and ran back to hide behind Chris.

"What kind of monster would do that to a child?" Major demanded.

"You answered your own question," Chris said. "Apparently, his captor liked to beat him, even after his change. I guess one time he hit him hard enough in the head that it knocked something loose so now he can't open his mouth anymore without those saws coming out," she said bitterly.

Major turned to John and whispered in his ear, "Isn't there something you can do to help him? I mean, if you were able to fix my body up, you should bee able to help fix what ever is wrong with him."

"I'll see what I can do," he whispered back and reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his screwdriver. "If you don't mind, I might be able to see what's wrong and if I'm lucky, I be able to fix it."

Chris looked down at the child with a worried expression, but after a minute she let John do what he could.

John knelt down to the boy's level, "Have you ever watched a TV show called Doctor Who?" he asked him. The boy shook his head. "Well," John started, "The hero of the show is called the doctor. And what he does is he goes about the universe in his time machine helping everyone he comes across. He uses a device like this," he held his sonic screw driver in front of the boy for him to see, "Called a sonic screwdriver that helps him help people. It can do all sorts of things. From opening doors, surfing the net, to looking inside of people." John then leaned in closer, "And if he's really bored, he uses it to put furniture together," he said in a mock conspired voice which made the boy smile. "Right now, I'm going to us this to look inside you to see what's going on. I promise it won't hurt," he reassured him. The boy absently turned to Chris who only gave him a reassuring look of her own. The boy then turned back to John and nodded.

The screwdriver buzzed as John ran it over the boy's head and body. Once he was done he stared at the blue lights on its side. He scanned the boy a few more times checking the screwdriver each time. When he check the screwdriver for the last time he just stared at the lights for several minutes after which he adjusted the controls ever so slightly and put a hand on the boys shoulder. "Ok, listen now. I'm going to use this to try and fix you now. You might feel a sharp sting in your head but you're going to have to tough it out ok?"

The boy looked nervous and held a hand out to Chris who came over and took it. They both then walked over to the couch, with a quick look from Chris, Eddie got out of the way and the two sat down with the boy on Chris' lap holding her hand tightly. John was once again in front of the boy and with steady aim, he pointed the sonic device behind the child's right eye. As the buzzing of the device intensified, the boy squeezed his eyes shut and held Chris' hand even tighter. Just as the pain was about to cause him cry out, John had finished and placed the screwdriver back in his pocket.

"Now I may not be a real doctor, I do look like The Doctor, so please open your mouth and say ah," John told him softly.

The child looked up behind him to Chris who gently urged him to try. After several long seconds of hesitation he slowly opened his mouth and quickly uttered a sound before putting a hand over his mouth in surprise. He looked around at everyone in bewilderment and quickly said a small "Hi." before covering his mouth with both hands again which did nothing to hide the smile behind them.

Chris gave him a hug and a pat on the head and told him to go off and show the others. The boy bounded off her lap and ran down the hall with a squeal of delight followed by several giggles. Chris got up and shook John's hand, "Thank you, you have no idea how much what you did means to him and everyone else here."

"It's no problem," John replied, "I was glad that I was able to help him. I do however want to check up on him after our mission just to be sure everything's ok," he added.

Chris became a little somber on hearing that but agreed none the less. Johanna, who had slipped away during the whole thing had returned garbed in in military gear with the helmet slung under one arm she came up to the group.

"The Hercules should be refueled by now and the CSOR team is back from their exercises. So, if anyone still needs to get changed, now's the time to do it," she said as she turned and left.

Chris pulled out the revolvers from each holster one at a time to check them. Major noticed that the barrel of Chris' guns were oddly designed. Instead of the normal barrel that held the bullets, the ones on her guns were open, the bullets being held in place by clips.

"Where'd you get guns like those?" Major asked.

Chris smiled as she put one back in its holster, "Complements of the box and two of a kind," she said holding it up, "With the way these are made, when I run out of ammo, I just pass them over my bandolier and I'm instantly reloaded. All the advantages of a revolver without the jamming of an automatic pistol," she said with a hint of admiration. She put the one she was holding away as well and picked up a combat knife from the chair beside the couch and attached it behind herself to her belt and then slipped on a bullet resistant vest. She gave everything one final check before she was satisfied then took a deep breath, "Ok, here we go."

Andria's eyes widened as she suddenly realised why Chris looked so familiar, "You're Rubi!" she cried recalling the character from an old PS3 game called: Wet. Andria lean to one foot excited to meet a fellow gamer chic, "My name is Andrea. So, is Chris short for Christine? What games do you play?"

Chris just snorted as she headed out to the military transport, "I don't really play that many games. And I'm sure that my mom meant for Chris to be short for Christopher. Just because I look like a girl doesn't mean I was born as one. Believe me, once I'm able to, I'm going to change back. I like being a guy and until then, I'll do my job," she said defiantly as she exited.

Andria groaned in disappointment as she walked after her followed by John and Major. They quickly boarded the Hercules transport, they strapped in next to the CSOR members, Johanna had already gone up to the cockpit.

Andria leaned over to Chris who was sitting beside her, "I'm sorry about earlier," she told her.

Chris pursed her lips in annoyance, "Don't worry about it."

"I was wondering about something," Andria started.

"What?" Chris asked.

"How come you're not taking a sword with you? If I remember correctly, Rubi had a sword on her back not a knife."

Chris sighed, "This isn't some crappy video game Andria. Besides, the sword's a bitch to get back in the scabbard especially when you're under fire. A combat knife is much better for close quarters anyways."

"Oh," was all Andria could say, much to her disappointment. She was really hoping to see a video game character move in the flesh like in the game. And while she taped herself doing some stuff, it eventually got old. "Oh well," she thought. At least she met some else who was like her. She reminded herself to ask Chris later why she turned herself into a female video game character later as the plane took off into the air.

000000

It was a few hours past sunset and the ship that was the headquarters of Tonaon Industrials had left its dock and was on its was to its Japan office to replenish the ranks of the science team to increase the rate of research being done on the exo-suits and the girl's nanites. Noel, of course, was still hanging in her cage having resigned herself to a deep state of depression as the various scientist went about their work. Nicolette had come a few times to draw some blood and make some comments in her recorder then leave. Noel had given up trying to convince anyone here that she was alive if not human. They never listened. Noel tried to pass the time listening in on the various conversations around her. Right now He was listening to two scientist talk about him.

"So, who do you think made it?" the male scientist asked the female one.

"For the last time, I don't know and I don't care. We were told to find out how it works and that's what I'm going to do."

"You got to admit that the AI program is outstanding. The response time is instantaneous and responsive. I haven't been able to trip it up at all yet."

The woman pulled her glasses off and rubbed the bridge of her nose, "I'm just tired of doing all this passive analysis. We need to cut it open to make any further progress." The phone rang on the desk they were working at and she picked it up.

Noel couldn't hear what the conversation was about but he could see the woman nod her head a few times before hanging up. She then walked over to Noel's cage holding a syringe filled with something and entered. As she walked up to him she flicked the syringe. Noel didn't like the look of this and even though it had proved futile so far, he struggled against his restraints.

To his, and the woman's surprise, his left arm came free. The woman screamed and dropped the syringe.

"Look out it's loose!" some one else shouted.

Unbeknownst to Noel at the time, Peter had actually loosened his restraints and would have let him escape had he tried to. Peter may have forgotten to put his restraints back on at the end of his shift or may have intended to leave them off. At this point, it didn't matter to Noel why they were loose, he had to act or they would kill him.

Don Wait had been bored to tears all throughout his shift and was glad it was going to end soon when he heard the scream and some one shouting. His attention was drawn towards the doll thing as it was pulling its restraints off.

"Well at least it's a break in the tedium," he mumbled to himself as he brought his MP5 up and aimed down the sights. He fired but the rubber bullets his gun was loaded with only penetrated the first mesh door before being stopped by the second. At this point Noel had finally gotten the harness that was holding him suspended off and was now working on the cables still connected to his legs. Don swore as he dropped his MP5 and pulled out his sidearm he already knew he was going to get in trouble for using live ammo but the way he figured was that since it was really a machine, they could still use it whether or not it was working one hundred percent. And with that going through his head, he fired three bullets. Two bullets hit Noel in the left and right shoulders and the third hit him dead center in the chest throwing him back through the mesh wall behind him tearing it from its frame where he landed on the floor unmoving.

Then all hell broke loose.

Up on the bridge, the crew were busy when suddenly all the system and computer monitors flashed red and blanked. Then every security and emergency alarm began ringing as security doors closed all over the ship. The helmsman informed the captain that he lost steering control. When the captain ordered another of the bridge crew to call up the computer guys in the mainframe room. The crewman did as ordered then but told him the phone line was dead. A person from security tried his radio but quickly pulled his earpiece out as a screeching tone erupted from it. The security system began warning of incoming boarders in random parts of the ship while another warned of fires breaking out in others. The ship suddenly increased speed as well knocking most people on board off their feet.

Meanwhile, in the lab containing the exo-suits, Mike and Tom were working with Nelly again in the exo-suit-2 with Peter supervising. Mike stood by going over the data while Tom was telling Nelly of how next time they wanted to test the suit with the prototype battery when the room suddenly lurched to one side. Fire alarms and automated warnings of intruders sounded in the halls. A man who was placing a sensor inside of exo-suit-1 cried out in pain as the suit, without warning, closed up slicing several of his fingers off that didn't make it in time. The empty suit then swung a hand catching another nearby that went to help the man sending him flying into the wall on the other side of the room with a sickening scrunch as he crumpled to the floor dead. The suit then plodded over to the helmet that matched it and placed it on its shoulders. On doing this the features of the suit began to melt together and less distinct. The maple leaf pattern on its chest now looked like a bloody splotch. Its head shuddered as it split open revealing a gaping maw of a mouth full of long sharp teeth. With a roar its arms grew claws and it smashed through the door and left. Nelly had finally gotten to her feet and started to run after the rampaging suit but was stopped short by the cord that was supplying her suit with power. It was only when the cable was pulled out causing her to fall did she stop.

Mike was in a state of shock while Tom check on his injured colleague while Peter check the dead one, seeing he truly was dead he went out into the hall. Aside from the smashed door the only other sign of the of the run away suit was the sound of bulkheads being smashed as it broke through security doors. Judging from the direction the noise was coming from Peter guessed that it was heading towards the main labs. He then picked up his radio to inform security but the radio only sputtered static. Running back into the lab he picked up the phone but quickly discovered the line was dead. With a growl, Peter dropped the phone down and walked over to Nelly.

He grunted as he turned her over onto her back, "Are you ok?" he asked her.

"Only my pride," she responded, "And if you tell ANYONE about this, I'll do much worse to you. You hear me?"

Peter allowed himself a short laugh, "Believe me, I'm probably the only one who'll never go waltzing over to your bad side." He turned to Mike first but saw he was in no condition to do anything. He then turned to Tom, "What the hell happened?"

Tom had just finished bandaging his colleagues hand and was wiping the blood off on his pants, "I have no idea. Nothing like that ever happened before. I didn't even know it could... Shift like that, let alone move on its own."

"We gotta get that thing back and under control," Peter stated as he looked around trying to think. When his eyes fell to Nelly he looked back to Tom, "How soon can you attach the battery to the Nelly's suit?"

"Yeah, I think so," Tom replied, "I'll still need to calibrate it so it'll take a few minutes."

"Then get started," Peter told him.

Down in the main lab, things weren't getting any better as the fire sprinklers had activated making everyone's day miserable. The problem was only compounded with the fact the doors to the lab had locked. Some were hiding from the sprinklers under desks while a few were trying the door, only one was working on the sprinkler system. Don was at the door with mixed success in communicating with the security personnel on the other side of the door. He found that if they shouted, they could barely make out what the other was saying. They weren't any better then Don in the lab but they were dry. However fortune seemed to be smiling on them as the technician was finally able to stop the sprinklers allowing "clearer" communication between the door. While the guards outside were able to move freely through the halls, every door on the ship they checked seemed to be locked. Don was in the middle of telling them to go to one of the smaller labs to find one of the computer techs and hack the door open when he heard shouting followed by gunfire and ended with two thumps on the door.

Don backed away from the door and motioned the techs and scientist to get behind cover while he swapped out the magazine in his MP5 with live ammo, the other security man did the same as they got behind cover and aimed at the door. None of the security personnel on the ship were strangers to boarders. Being the headquarters for the whole company and a ship on the ocean, they averaged on repelling boarding attempts from pirates and other like at least once a year. This was however the first time any have made it inside the ship let alone this deep into it. A second later there was a load bang on the door followed by several others in rapid succession.

The repeated bangs on the door both worried and confused Don. If it were pirates on the other side of the door then why were they banging on it? Surely they knew it was useless to force their way in like that. If it were him he'd of already had cutting torches on the door or at least some breaching charges to blow the door. He was about to relax until he heard the doors actually begin to creak under the constant physical attacks. The banging stopped for a short moment before renewing, this time slowly but more forcibly than before. The center between the doors actually began to bend inward until two bloody clawed hands burst through and forced the doors to open inwards with an ear-splitting metallic screech and cracks from the doors being ripped from their tracks in the frame. Don and the other guard readied their submachine guns as the berserk hardsuit entered the main lab. It's eyeless head looked around the lab and seemed to settle on Don. With a start is let out a heavy roar and charged straight for him. Don and the other guard opened fire on the rampaging hardsuit as it advanced, with the bullets having no effect it was already upon Don. It grabbed him by the head with one hand and crushed his hands still holding the now mangled weapon. Don screamed out in pain, the monster roared back and grabbed his head with both hands now. The other guard spent his entire magazine on it before rushing in hitting it with the butt of his gun with no effect.

The berserk hardsuit began to squeeze Don's head until a sickening crack indicating that Don was now dead. Don Wait's body fell slack. Not seeming to be content with Don's relatively quick death, the hardsuit back handed the guard still hitting it and pushed down on Don's body sending what's left of his head through his torso to his waist. The people who watched this horror screamed and scrambled for the wrecked door. The hardsuit ignored them and walked over to Noel's body. It reverted back to its original form and picked Noel up, holding him against itself and opening its armor Bringing him inside. Once Noel was inside, the hardsuit shuddered and fell to its knees. The hardsuit began repairing the damage to Noel's body.

Soon enough Noel was whole again and woke up with a start. Seeing that he was back in his hardsuit he looked around and laid eyes on the damn cage that held him for weeks on end. He quickly tore it apart with grim satisfaction. With that sorted Noel then took stock of his surroundings and nearly threw up when he saw the gory mess of Don Wait.

"Ok, I'm free now. I'm still a girl but I'm free," Noel thought to himself. "Now which way is out?"

Out on the ocean, a Canadian Halifax-class frigate was approaching the ship. On the bridge the captain told the radio man to issue a warning to the runaway ship.

"Attention fleeing vessel," the radioman started, "Cut your engines and prepare to be boarded. You are under suspicion of kidnaping a Canadian citizen and harboring a known terrorist." He waited for a response. There wasn't any. He repeated the hail but after another minute there was still no response. "The bogey hasn't responded to hails captain."

The captain nodded, "Try contacting them by signal light. It might be possible their communications are out," he said with a raised eyebrow obviously not believing what he said himself.

Over on the bridge of the company ship the bridge crew watched the light signals having not heard due to the radio still being out. However, they were powerless to respond as they were still locked in the bridge and there wasn't any strong enough lights on the bridge to send a return signal of their plight. They could only watch as the frigate came along their course at a respectable distance.

After waiting several minutes the captain of the frigate told the radioman to signal the go ahead for the boarding team to start their mission that was now flying over them.

On the Hercules transport, John and his team were getting ready along with the CSOR team. Although, John was having a slight argument with Andria over the issue of her not wanting to wear a parachute.

"I'm telling you, I don't need one," Andria stated matter-of-factly, "I have my grav con," she said as she snapped her fingers causing a faint misty blue aura surrounds her.

John raised an eyebrow, "Andria, that only worked once in the game," he told her.

Andria pouted at that, "You know that's just a plot hole for the game. Come on, this is one of the few times I'll ever get a chance to use it like this," she whined.

One of the CSOR members came over, "Trust me kid, you don't want to hit the water from this height. Even if you hit the water, with a chute, it'll feel like hitting concrete."

The statement took the wind out of Andria's petulance as she grumbled and pulled a parachute on muttering of how cool it would have been.

John pulled on a ski mask before pulling his helmet on. Both John and Andria were dressed in modified SWAT gear. The mask John was now wearing was to protect his identity and avoid future headaches since he still looked very much like David Tenant. Major had her own gear from when she was first transformed as well as the weapon that only, until she came upon the box, existed in the anime. She loaded a magazine into her Seburo C26A assault rifle with a silencer and clipped it to her tac vest. Andria herself had her gunblade configured in rifle mode. John was the only one on the their team with a conventional firearm. Another of the CSOR team members handed Major a radio but she held her hand up and shook her head.

"I don't need it," she said, "Just tell me what channel we're on." He did so. "Can you hear me?" she asked over the radio. Her voice had a weird digital echo to it but came through clear.

Johanna came down from the cockpit to the hold and stood in front of them. "We're almost over the target area. Once the signal is given, you'll all be jumping, after thirty seconds pull your chutes. There's a frigate on the surface that will provide a distraction while you land. Needless to say, the priority here is to rescue a kidnapped civilian. Target of opportunity is a Henry Donald. If possible, capture him as there's a possibility that he's kidnapped several people and are holding them at his base of operations but he is considered extremely dangerous and has proven himself to kill when cornered. So don't take any chances."

They all acknowledged while Andria spoke up, "Don't worry about the distraction, I can take care of that."

Johanna nodded, "I'll leave it to you then," she said before she turned and headed back to the cockpit. The lights in the hold dimmed as the back of the plane opened up. Everyone lined up ready for the signal. The light next to the open door turned green and everybody ran out and jumped into the air. After thirty seconds, they opened their chutes and steered for the flat top of the ship as they drifted down. As they floated down, Andria "summoned" a hologram of an eidolon from Final Fantasy XIII. It's glowing body flew off to the bow of the ship easily distracting the few guards that were on deck as well as those who had a window in the island tower of the ship. They quickly touched down on the deck, John and his team made way for the base of the island tower while the CSOR team secured the few people on the deck.

They quickly found the doors they found to be locked. Major pulled the panel off the key pad by the door and attached a device to hack the system. She pulled out the cord from her dummy plug and connected to the system. Reality fell away from her as she was plunged into the digital plane where she was floating in an ethereal void, the security system was identified as a box icon in front of her. As she approached the icons on the box turned red causing her to stop. Major swore as she looked for any holes in the systems firewall.

"What's taking so long?" John asked.

"The security system is top notch. I shouldn't be surprised since this is the head office for the entire company, so wait while I figure this out," she said. As she began to probe the firewall the red icon turned back to white. In the real world, the door opened.

"Good job," John said as the group walked in.

"But I-I didn't even do anything yet," Major sputtered. No one seemed to hear her.

"We're in. So, what now?" Chris asked. "It's not like we were able to get the plans to the ship so how are we going to find Noel?"

John pulled out his sonic screwdriver from a pocket in his tac vest, "It's all right, I can use this to track Noel's power signature. It's almost exactly the same as the alien box," he explained. "It's probably why the machine she had closed up early when Johanna came by her place."

"How do you know about that?" Chris asked as she turned him around by the shoulder.

"III may have glanced through the file Johanna gave you wen you were finished with it," he said as he began pointing the screwdriver around. Only he, and to a lesser extent Major, were able to decipher the subtle pitches of buzzing and barely perceptible changes in light. "This way," he told them as he headed in the general direction of the main lab.

"Wait!" Major called out, "What about Henry? I know he's still here. I can feel that slime ball any where," she said in disgust.

John breathed a sigh in frustration, "Ok, lets split up. Half with me and half go with the Major and search the ship for Henry."

"Looks like I'm with you then," Chris said to John, "My first priority is to rescue Noel."

Two of the CSOR team members went with John Andria and Chris while the other three went with Major. After splitting up John's newly revised team head to the aft of the ship while Major and her team went to the fore of the ship.

Meanwhile in the lab that had held the hardsuits up till now. Tom had finally calibrated the battery prototype and hooked it up into the suit that Nelly was still in.

"'K Nelly, the exo-suit is now being powered by the battery. I don't know how long it'll last but you should have on the outside of half an hour before it's dead," he winced inwardly on saying that last word.

Nelly nodded at that while adjusting the helmet to the hardsuit she was now wearing for the first time. Tom did one final check before giving her the thumbs up.

"One more thing though," Tom warned, "I have no idea how much power the exo-suit will drain from the battery. Since we haven't tested any of the combat capabilities of the suit I'm not sure if you'll even get thirty minutes."

"Don't worry. I'm not the type to play around on the clock," Nelly replied as she headed for the door where Peter was waiting.

He put a hand on her shoulder, "Be careful," he told her grimly.

She told him she would as she pulled the faceplate down on her helmet and ran down the hall. As she rounded a corner, her foot slipped on the polished floor and skidded to a halt against the wall. Picking herself up, she was glad that nobody saw her being so clumsy and was off again following the spent ammo casings and random dead body. Soon she was in the main lab and ran head long into Noel sending him to the far side of the lab.

Noel hit the wall hard and fell to the ground but got up almost immediately. He extended the blades from his hardsuits forearms and readied to attack. "I don't know who you are in that hardsuit lady but I've got a LOT of pent up aggression from being held here against my will," Noel told her.

"You don't know what the fuck you mean by 'pent up'," Nelly countered as she launched herself at Noel.

Noel swung a bladed arm down in front of Nelly but she dodged to the side at the last minute then pushed herself off the wall behind Noel kicking him in the back sending Noel flying forwards this time. Noel growled as he got up and retracted one of his blades and fired several energy bolts at Nelly's previous location. Nelly, had jumped into the air and landed in front of Noel, ducking down Nelly swept a leg knocking Noel's feet out from under him as he fell to the deck. In one fluid motion Nelly rolled over and grabbed hold of Noel's arm and held him down with her legs. Nelly's military training was obviously giving her an edge over Noel but he refused to ever go back to that cage again. He struggled against Nelly's hold but her grip stayed firm. In desperation he extended the kater blade from the arm that Nelly was holding. Sparks flew as the blade grinded against Nelly's hardsuit. In surprise, she let go to avoid being impaled in the face allowing Noel to roll away and get to his feet.

Nelly was growing concerned. She kept glancing at the indicator on her HUD that showed her battery level seeing tat a third was gone already. She ground her teeth trying to think of what to do, she had to hit the girl hard and fast enough to knock her out or knock her helmet off and knock her out that way. She knew from personal experience that it didn't take much to do that. With that in mind she rushed forward making a feint by kicking the girl in the stomach, she reacted by doubling over and grabbing Nelly's leg. Nelly then brought both arms up and struck the back of Noel's head with both elbows slamming Noel almost comically to the ground. Taking advantage of this Nelly got on Noel's back and grabbed him in a headlock and pulled back hoping to either suffocate him into unconsciousness or pull the helmet off by force. Noel countered by deploying his jump wings flipping her over. Noel then jumped up and came down with a punch followed by a kick. He tried kicking her again but she caught his leg and swung him around into one of the few robotic assembly arms still in the lab smashing it to pieces. Nelly continued swinging Noel smashing him into the floor and various other equipment until Noel kicked her away while using the jump jets on his hips to get some distance from her. Nelly was becoming frustrated and activated the ribbons in the helmet of her hardsuit. Noel groaned knowing that thing were going to get a whole lot harder.

Major and the three other CSOR team members were trying the doors and finding each of them locked. On the occasion they heard something on the other side, Major would kick the door in and check the room, often finding terrified employees. After telling them to stay put, they would move on to the next door. They continued this tactic until the hall split off into three directions. This caused Major to decide to split up the team to cover more ground. Two of the CSOR members would go right while Major and the third went down the left side. Major and the soldier walked a short distance before reaching another split in the hallway. This time Major went right while her companion went left. She had reached her fourth door when she heard a noise behind the door. Readying her rifle, she kicked the door in and came face to face with Henry who was busy putting on a suitcase style suit of Ironman armor. Major froze for the briefest of moments but she managed to compose herself quickly enough.

"Freeze!" she shouted as she aimed her rifle at his unprotected head, "Put the palms of your hands on the sides of you head and is I see you charging up any of your weapons to shoot, so help me god, I'll shoot right through that thing you call a face," she spat.

Henry calmly complied and put his armored hands to the sides of his head. He gave her an unpleasant smile, "I see you're still up and about," he said casually, "Tell me, how's your memory been?"

"Shut it!" Major shouted, she was already on the radio telling the other CSOR soldiers that came with her to come to her location. "Fuck you Henry."

Henry only smirked, "Tell you what, if you let me go, I'll tell you what your name is. I mean your real name," he said.

Major hessitated, "H-how can you know what my name is when you deleted my memories," she accused.

Henry only shrugged, "I took a copy of your memories before I erased them from your mind. If you want, I can tell you little about your robotic friend before he blew up," he taunted.

Major lowered her rifle ever so slightly. She wanted, desperately even, wanted to know anything about her past. But to give Henry any slack would be deadly. She righted her rifle in resolve. "How do I know you're not lying just so you can get away?"

Henry quirked his head, "You don't," he said simply, "For all you know I'm probably lying about everything. But can you really take that chance for a small bit of piece of mind I can give?" His smirk changed to a predatory smile, "Tell me. If you're so distrusting of me, what makes you think that Jeffrey deserves any of yours?"

Major narrowed her eyes, "What are you talking about?"

"Hmm? Oh nothing. It's just that I'm not sure Jeffrey told you everything about us,"

"He told me that you put your own sister in the hospital," Major stated.

This caused Henry to chuckle, "Oh, he really didn't tell you anything at all did he?"

Major started to feel more nervous than before, "Just shut up, if you get out of that armor and surrender yourself, you'll have your chance to tell us what you think is real."

"Maybe," Henry replied. His finger twitched.

Out on the bridge of the frigate, the radar man got the XO's attention, "Sir, I'm getting an airborne contact coming off the mainland and it's heading for the bogey."

"A missile?" he asked.

"Unknown sir, but the bogey is now between us and the contact will breach the bogey in twenty seconds."

The XO gritted his teeth, "Very well, deploy what counter measures we can and inform the boarding party of a possible missile impact."
"Ey sir."

At this time the three CSOR team members were right outside the room.

"Either way Henry, you're under arrest for several murders and suspected kidnappings," Major stated as she inched towards him, her rifle still trained on his head.

"Oh, I don't think so," Henry said as slowly turned around.

Just as the radioman was issuing the warning, when the wall exploded inwards and an armored robot climbed in pointing a muzzle on its arm at the direction of Major and the three soldiers with her.

"Run!" Major shouted as she ducked and rolled as the robot fired a shotgun blast that caught one of the fleeing soldiers in the chest. Fortunate for him, his tac vest did it's job and he mostly had the wind knocked out of him though he was going to be sore for days afterwards. When Major recovered to her feet, Henry already had his helmet on and was about to leave when he turned back to her.

"At least trust me when I say this: Jeffrey isn't telling you everything," and then he was gone as he flew off towards the mainland.

"FUCK!" Major screamed as she aimed her rifle at the robot that stayed behind and opened fire. The HV-type bullets that were loaded in the rifle made quick work of the robot as the bullets perforated the robot. the two CSOR members added to the onslaught with their own fire and the robot was quickly downed. After making sure the robot was dead they check on their companion that caught the shotgun blast and found he actually had two cracked ribs but was otherwise ok.

"We lost Henry," Major said bitterly.

John had lead the team down through the decks and hallways when they across the hallway filled with destruction, ammo casings and dead bodies.

"Well," John said grimly, "I don't think I'll be needing my screwdriver to lead us to her by the looks of this."

They all checked their weapons and continued on. As they passed a room with an broken door bullets suddenly spewed forth from the room. They took cover on either side of the door.

This is the Canadian Armed Forces," Chris shouted, "Stand down!"

"Bullshit!" a voice shouted back followed by more bullets.

"We don't have time for this," Chris stated as she took a few steps back before running to the door. Just before reaching the door she fell to her knees and slid through on the floor. Two shots rang out followed by a groan of a man and a thump on the floor. Chris walked out a second later. "He'll be walking funny for awhile but he'll be fine, lets go," she said as she continued down the hall. Andria gave John a look to which he responded with just a shrug as they followed after.

Henry was hugging the shoreline over the water as he left the ship far behind. He wished he had more time to study the girl and the tech she made for herself with the box. But, the risk was too great with Jeffrey's team there and without his usual armor he decided caution was the better part of business. As he considered what else to do, something landed on his back causing him to dip as he flew. Looking over his shoulder he saw Jeffrey in his Batman beyond suit holding on to him.

"Where is she!?" he demanded. as he tried to force him down.

"Try checking the boat," Henry replied as he began spinning so much that Jeffrey eventually lost his grip and fell off where he smacked in some of the four foot waves of the ocean before he was able to activate the rockets in his boots. With a grimace he headed for the ship.

The main lab had been completely destroyed by the ongoing fight between Noel and Nelly. Nelly was able to maintain the upper hand but her battery was nearly dead which she noticed as her hardsuit was slowing down. Nelly knew that her next move was her last chance to subdue the girl. She ran straight at Noel who moved to grab her. As he did so she duck down and to the side batting his arm away with one hand while throwing a jab to his side and slide in behind him and reached under his helmet and started pulling.

"Come on, you piece of shit, get off," Nelly gritted.

Noel grabbed her arms and pulled her over himself, thanks to her training she recovered, but Noel had had enough and shoved a hand through the battery and its casing. Nelly's suit stopped moving.

"Fuckfuckfuck, fucking move you piece of shit," Nelly pleaded to herself. She was once again unable to move. "Please move, I don't want to be a fucking cripple for the rest of my life," she pleaded again coming close to tears.

Noel didn't know what to think. Just seconds ago this woman was literally trying to pull his head off and now she sounded like she was crying. "Was she really paralysed?" he asked himself, "Was she just not able to walk? No, even if the hardsuit had no power, a person could still move it, even if only slightly." So far, the woman was only banging her head around trying to move herself. Noel could see that her fingers weren't moving at all so she must really be completely paralysed then. "How did she get like that?" He wondered. "And why did they put her in a hardsuit? Did they find something out about the hardsuits that I didn't think of?"

Noel continued to wonder these thoughts. He didn't want to leave her like that. While it wasn't the same he felt he could relate, being tied up like he was for weeks on end. Every other day, the same jerk off would touch him in places... Noel shook his head. He didn't want to leave her like this where some one like his molester could take advantage of her but he couldn't leave her with a fully functioning hardsuit either. Noel thought about this until he realised something. He was a Claudia-class Boomer. He intentionally made himself like that so he could repair his own hardsuit if he needed to. "Surely, I can use that to change her hardsuit too right," He thought to himself. He flipped her over and removed what was left of the battery casing and put his armored hand in as he concentrated. She didn't need the armor of the weapons the hardsuit had, she just needed the motors and sensors to move. Soon, his armored hand began to meld with the Linna hardsuit. Once that was done, he began absorbing the material of the hardsuit into himself and his own armor. This caused the Linna hardsuit to look sickly as veins started to grow over it. As the veins pulsed, they seemed to flow back to Noel making the Linna hardsuit somehow dull in color as well as appear thinner. Once he was done Noel pulled away, the veins on her hardsuit remained but looked withered giving the hardsuit a look as if it were dead.

Noel hoped he was doing the right thing as he turned away and headed for the exit. When he came to a corner, he bumped into Chris with John Andria and the two CSOR members. Surprised, Chris brought her revolver up and was about to shoot when John pushed it aside just as she fired sending the bullet harmlessly into the wall behind Noel.

"Stop!" John told her, "She's the one we've been looking for."

Chris looked surprised but put her revolver away and she pulled out a canteen and took a swig of it as she cursed.

"We were going to rescue you," John said as he looked Noel over, "But it seems you were able to take care of yourself."

"Believe me when I say it was pure coincidence. You have no idea how long I wanted to get out of that hell hole," Noel said in relief.

Chris quickly radioed that they found Noel and were heading out. The captain of the frigate told her that they were sending a helicopter to pick them up. The rest of the boarding team acknowledged as they headed for the flat deck. They met up with Major and her team as they got onto the deck outside. As they waited for the helicopter John and Major shared a tender kiss.

"Don't you ever do that again, you hear me?" John told her.

"I can handle myself," Major replied hotly, "I just wished I didn't loose him," she said bitterly.

"You may have lost him but with any luck, the tracking beacon I stuck on him might lead us back to his hide out," a voice said.
Surprised, they all turned around as Jeffrey turned off the cloak on his suit revealing himself.

"Once we know which rock he crawls under, we're going to get him and stop him. Once and for all," he said with a look of determination on his face.