Monday. 19:00 Hilton Downtown Hotel
The twins pulled into the parking lot and parked their car in the VIP parking zone. Lisa exited the vehicle and headed for the elevator to the lobby. Lex opened the back of the SUV and pulled out their bags. Lisa was holding the door for him.
They went to the front desk and checked in. Lisa took their room keys and headed to the elevators with Lex following behind with their bags. Lex walked into the elevator pressed on the fourteenth-floor button. A couple minutes later the door opens, and they head down the hallway to their suite.
Lisa opened the door and let Lex in first. He dropped two bags a few steps into the room and pulled up the roller bag and set that on the table and opened it.
“You can carry your own shit in the future,” Lex looked pissed.
“Oh, but brother, you are so good at being the servant.”
“I’m no one’s fucking servant,” he turned around and hissed at Lisa.
“I beg to differ, we serve father.”
“And what has that gotten us? He’s been promising us the key for twenty years. A new world where we’d be sitting at the top. I don’t see it.”
Lisa looked concerned, “You shouldn’t talk that way of father.”
“Have I said anything incorrect?”
“No. No, you’re right. He promises the world and rarely have those promises been fulfilled. But you can’t tell me that he’s wrong about John.”
“Lisa, he is as set in his ways as father is. He will never join us.”
“I’m aware, but if he’s alive they can put him into stasis and use his seed on their projects. So, we mustn’t kill him.”
“Is he worth dying for?”
“Who, John or father?”
“Both,” Lex had a cold look in his eyes.
“I would not willingly die for John. For father I would.”
“We need a second plan to extricate us from a fight if it goes wrong for us. I have a bad feeling about everything here,” Lex said, “I want to kill this bastard but this whole operation has my skin crawling.”
“Interesting that you’re the one that feels so. I wouldn’t have thought you would’ve cared about anything besides a good fight.”
“I want a good fight, but there’s something different about him. He doesn’t fight like any other telepath. Most try to attack our minds, but beyond a cursory scan he just went for physical attacks.”
Lisa walked over to the table and began looking at their data and plan of attack, “I agree, he’s hiding something. I swear he’s a telekinetic, but I don’t have any actual proof of that happening.”
“What if he’s like that monk we fought. That channeler.”
“So, he amplifies his physical capabilities by channeling his psychic power through his body?” Lisa sat down on the chair, “But the information we stole from the monk suggested their order never taught any outsiders.”
“I’m aware of how difficult that ability is to master, but I think he’s doing that, or something very similar to it.”
“Well anyways, let’s review tomorrows plan and get another extrication plan on paper.”
Tuesday. 09:00 Academy Armory
“I told you he’d be here,” Thomas said.
“I never said he wouldn’t be here,” Andern was pouted.
“Yeah, you literally did. You said he’d be lifting weights,” Kristin was shaking her head.
“He’s got a new toy that he’s working on. Of course, he’s here,” Kevin smiled.
“John, I swear to Christ, if you shot yourself with that,” Alice shouted.
“For fucks sake you guys are loud. And no, I have not shot myself with it, even though I really need to know what it does,” John looked up from the table, “What time is it?”
“09:00, but that begs the question what time did you get here?” Theresa asked.
“Fuck I missed breakfast. 04:00,” John smiled and tossed the gun to Kevin, “Got it slimmed down a bit. I’m sure y’all could do better but for now that’s one of those it’s good enough for now.”
“Brian and Thomas are coming with us for dinner tonight by the way,” Alice said as she sat down at a clean table.
“So, we’re excluding Nathan and Jessica? Kind of a dick move on our part,” John sounded sad.
“Nathan is at the airport now and Jessica is heading there after lunch.” Kristin smiled.
“Not a dick move then.”
“When you guys heading too Mobile?” Andern asked.
“Have a late morning flight on Thursday. Basically, have chow then bounce,” John stretched as he stood up.
“What’s the plan now?” Kevin asked.
“Well, I’m gonna take a shower. Gorgeous day out, cornhole on the quad?”
“Sounds good, I’d rather not be in this pit any longer than we have to,” Theresa said sarcastically.
John and the group began leaving the armory. He stopped and ran back and grabbed his psychic gun. John didn’t understand why he felt so compelled to take it with them that morning. He grabbed a holster and put it on his person.
Everyone was enjoying the nice weather and lack of schoolwork. That last bit was just the cherry on top. Having a proper break to decompress felt amazing. The current main topic was the wedding. They were four weeks and change away from the big day. John and Alice were incredibly excited for it, but both dreading the amount of work going into it. There was also the pomp and circumstance that the pair generally didn’t like.
John broke off from the group when they got to the quad and headed into the co-ed dorms and got cleaned up. Another bonus for being on summer break this year was the ability to wear civilian clothing. John smiled as he put his preferred outfit on. Cargo shorts, polo shirt, and sandals.
When John got down to the quad he tagged in and played against Kevin in a game of cornhole. The group stayed outside, played their game and chatted until lunch. When lunch began being served, they brought their gear back inside and stowed it in the lounge. After lunch was eaten then the group headed to the Spa Creek neighborhood.
12:30 Downtown Hilton, Room 1435
“Looks like they are on the move sister.”
“Good, do they have dinner reservations by any chance?”
Lex smiled, “Spa Creek, Ocean Delicacies.”
“Excellent, make sure our extrication teams know where that is. What time is the reservation?”
“Five in the evening, table for eight.”
“It’s really happening the way we’re planning. It will work today,” Lisa was smiling.
“The teams have been notified. Let’s get our gear setup so we’re ready to move,” there was a psychotic twinkle in Lex’s eye.
16:00 Spa Creek
“So, you proposed here?” Andern asked.
“Yup.”
“Sappy fuck,” Kevin laughed.
“It was so romantic. I honestly had no idea,” Alice was beaming with joy.
“How did you keep it quiet?” Brian asked.
“Well, I told her dad the night before and the weekend before I ran into Terry and told him.”
“Hold the phone, you told my brother?” Alice looked shocked.
“Yup. Asked him to not say anything. Same with your dad.”
The group laughed and continued to kill time in the park. It was gorgeous out that afternoon. John made it abundantly clear he was not looking forward to the swamp ass he was going to have in Mobile for the next month plus. But he was willing to suffer through that discomfort for the wedding.
Alice rolled her eyes and just slapped John in the chest. Then the group got to discussing John’s topic, to the dismay of the girls. Apparently, working out in the morning in Mobile is almost a life-threatening act to men.
“Oh my god, it is not that bad,” Alice kept rolling her eyes, “I lived there for most of my life. It’s really not that bad.”
“You never worked out in the morning in an unairconditioned building. The swamp ass is both real and serious,” John sounded way more serious than he should be given the subject matter.
“Then don’t work out in those conditions. That’s an easy one,” Theresa.
“Au contraire. If I’m staying at her place, I would have to drive somewhere else. That is not happening.”
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“Worst defense known to mankind,” Kristin laughed.
“I’m hungry, is it about time to grab a bite to eat,” Kevin said killing the momentum the current subject had in conversation.
John looked at his watch, “Yeah, I think its high time to walk back and check-in.”
16:45 Ocean Delicacies
“Lief, reservation for eight please,” John said to the maître de.
“Perfect timing. We just set the table up for you. If you would follow Molly, she’ll take you to your table.”
“Follow me, folks,” Molly, a bright and cheerful teenager said.
The group followed behind their waitress and went inside the restaurant, through the bar area and eventually out onto the dock. They had to squeeze between a couple tables but eventually took their seats.
“Again, I’m Molly. I’ll be your server today. What drinks can I start y’all out with?”
John asked the group what they wanted, “Four Sam Adams, three bottles of Penfolds Bin 149s, and a double pour of Lagavulin 8, neat please.”
“Excellent I’ll get those drinks for you.”
The group talked amongst themselves while looking at the menu. When Molly came back with their drinks, she took their food orders. Appetizers were sweet scallops, razor clams, and garlic bread with a cheesy spinach dip.
The appetizers were absolutely annihilated when they were delivered. The scallops were cooked in butter and were incredibly sweet tasting. They almost evaporated when they touched the tongue. The razor clams were very briny and assertive, but the flesh was every bit as soft as the scallops. John swore he blinked, and the bread disappeared.
“Where’d that bread go?” John was bewildered.
“It was tasty,” Alice smiled.
“Jerks.”
The table laughed. Ten minutes later their meals came out. The food was delicious. John finished his plate quickly, but about halfway through the rest of their meals John’s demeanor completely changed.
“Honey, what is it?” Alice noticed the change.
“When you leave here momentarily you will know where to go.”
“That makes no sense.”
“It will shortly.”
The twins walked into the bar and were watching the group. John looked unnaturally calm given the situation. The rest of the cadets could feel their blood chill in their veins.
“Can’t say that it’s a pleasure to see either of you two again. What’s the occasion?” John said as he rested his chin on his hands.
“Oh, not much, our father needs you. That means you’re coming with us,” Lex sneered the comment.
“Alice, why don’t you take our friends back home while I have a nice conversation with these two idiots,” John calmly said.
“Nah they aren’t…” Lex started to respond, but he felt a pressure in his head build up.
Everyone in the commercial area received a command to go home. John’s eye glowed a bright ethereal blue.
“It wasn’t a request. Alice, please take our friends back home.”
“Ok,” Alice said unsurely.
The group then got up and walked out of the restaurant. They were not comfortable at all walking by the twins. But John’s eyes continue glowing psychic energy. The group figured that John’s threat was real enough to stay their hand against them. They also noticed everyone had got up from their seats and were walking out of the restaurant in an orderly fashion.
“Why don’t you take a seat so we can discuss this fool’s errand you’re on? If you are smart, we can part ways alive and unharmed. I warn you though, start anything and I won’t hold back.” John’s calm was uncomfortable to the twins given the situation.
“What makes you think we have anything to talk about?” Lisa smiled uncomfortably.
“Go home and leave me alone. Your best-case scenario is one of you gets maimed and you leave severely wounded. There is no scenario where this works for you.”
“You think you can take us on without your precious armor? That’s cocky as fuck,” Lex looked like a rabid dog.
“You think I have spent the last few months sitting on my ass doing fuck all? I’ve been practicing and replaying our fight. I’m more than what I was then,” John gave a sinister grin, “More than both of you are now too. If I had my new armor y’all would have no chance. As it stands now, I’d give you ninety to one odds of winning.”
“That arrogance of yours is awfully repulsive,” Lisa spat out the words.
“So, do the two of you feel lucky today?” John smirked, “Well, do you punks?”
Lex couldn’t handle anymore insults and lashed out at John. He shot a flame at John, who dodged the attack. John grabbed a knife on the table and slashed it at Lex. Neither Lisa nor Lex were prepared for the counterattack. The knife cut a deep gash in Lex’s cheek, exposing his teeth, digging into his upper gums and slicing into the top of his nose.
John leapt forward and punched at Lex. A sheet of ice appeared in front of him. The punch shattered the ice and struck Lex but was arrested down to a normal punch. It tore his cheek and nose open more. Lex fell back and recoiled in pain. He howled in more pain when he seared the wounds on his face with his own fire.
17:45 Driving to the Warehouse District
“Uhm, why are we going this way? Academy was on the right,” Andern asked.
“We’re going to get geared up to help John,” Alice said as she ran another red light.
“Uh… how? The armory is at the academy,” Theresa said.
“John has a contingency plan in place.”
“Of course, he does,” Brian laughed uncomfortably from the back seat.
“Yeah, when doesn’t he?” Thomas was nervous.
“When we get there, we need to be in and out quickly,” Alice took a left and hammered the accelerator pedal.
Five minutes of driving, two more ran red lights, and a near miss on a very late orange left turn signal the group arrived at the warehouse. Alice put the vehicle into park and ran through the side door and headed to a trio of semi containers and placed a hand on one. The door was opening when the rest of them entered the warehouse.
“What the absolute fuck?” Kristin said.
Andern stepped in and looked around, “Fuck me, he’s borrowed a lot of stuff. Bullet proof vests and plates on your left. I’m grabbing a rifle.”
Thomas walked over and opened a tray. “Uhm, this motherfucker has thousands of unmarked credit chits in here.”
“Guns and armor now. He’ll have to explain all of this,” Alice shut down Thomas’ discovery.
The group ran out of the warehouse, with the container’s door closing behind Kristin as she ran out. They ran back to the parked vehicle and hopped in it. Alice sped away.
“Still not going to talk about those credit chits?” Thomas brought it up again.
“That might explain why everyone wants him dead,” Andern said astutely.
“Could also be his reaction to people threatening him. He yeets their savings to himself,” Kevin laughed.
“And why he hates taxes so damn much,” Theresa said, “He’s seriously not himself around tax time.”
“No shit, having this much money to launder and layer is also a danger at getting caught,” Brian said.
“I don’t think you guys understood. All of that money was already laundered. They were all unmarked chits.”
“That explains his watch collection. Converts the cleaned money to assets,” Kevin smiled, “Good god he is a clever bastard.”
“Let’s stow the chatter,” Alice sounded uncomfortable.
“Girl, you are marrying an evil genius,” Theresa started laughing.
“Who happens to fight on our side mostly,” Kristin added.
“Do we really need to have this conversation now?” Alice didn’t know how to shut this conversation down.
“Honestly, I’m kinda with John’s shoot first ask later policy with these two,” Andern said.
“Not like any of, well all of that, is going to stop me from helping. He’s fighting on our side,” Thomas smirked, “But there were literally thousands of chits. Not thousands on a chit, but thousands of chits.”
"Looks like I'm missing my flight tonight," Jessica shrugged as said from the van.
The car ride back to the Spa Creek district was more lighthearted given the situation. John had a lot of explaining to do to everyone. At least from the sounds of it, the only thing that really needed explaining was the credit chits. Though the guns that were now in their possession were no doubt stolen or disappeared from different armories in the navy.
18:00 Ocean Delicacies
The fight had been going on for twenty-five minutes. Part of Lex’s face looked like it was falling off. Lisa was breathing hard trying to counter John’s aggressive attacks. But as it stood neither side held an advantage over the other. That was worrying Lisa, the longer this dragged out the longer the lower the likelihood of success. Reinforcements for John were assured to be coming, but when they were coming was stressing her.
Lex roared at John as he launched several fireballs at him. John dodged them all with ease. He leaped in the air to avoid the icicles that were launched at him. John noticed the gun on the ground under where he was backflipping. When he landed, he dashed for the gun, grabbed it, and fired it at Lex.
Lex howled in pain. He felt his control over his abilities slip and pain receptors across his torso were triggering for no apparent reason. He tried to send a fireball at John, but its intensity was way lower than expected. John dodged another batch of icicles and tried to fire at Lisa. He was too slow as another icicle struck the gun, piercing it and ultimately causing the gun to break into two.
“You have five minutes to win. Just for your information,” John spoke for the first time since the fight began, “If I were you, I’d bugger out.”
John dashed toward Lex again. Lisa responded by creating an ice wall, but John just lowered his shoulder and plowed through it. He caught Lex by the shoulder and tried to sweep his legs out. Lex countered by unleashing a fiery blast that was far larger than he tried to make it. John shrugged off the blast and finished sweeping Lex’s legs out from him. Lisa panicked and entombed Lex in an icy coffin.
That was the moment that John used to switch his target to Lisa. She was ready for this though and fired several ice projectiles at John. He dodged them all but didn’t figure that Lex would’ve gotten out of the icy coffin that quickly. He took a fireball to his back, singing his skin.
“First of many motherfucker,” Lex laughed.
John became covered in the ethereal blue light. He savagely assaulted the twins mentally with a psychic attack the strength of which they’ve never seen nor could have estimated to be possible. It didn’t bypass all of their psychic blocks, but it overwhelmed most of them. It resulted in Lex being stunned momentarily but Lisa was able to fight it off, but in doing so her cryokinetic abilities were limited. He leaped toward Lex and connected a devastating kick to his chest.
John turned but was struck by a giant ice chunk. It flung him into the restaurant crashing through the bar.
“LEX, we need to retreat. There’s not enough time,” Lisa ran to Lex and pulled him up, “If he tries that attack again, we won’t be able to stop it.”
Lex pulled out a device and pressed it. Whatever was going to happen would happen within sixty seconds.
“Sis, I hurt, he got my ribs. We almost had him,” Lex whimpered.
“I know it hurts but we have to get to the parking lot,” Lisa and Lex pushed as hard as they could to get through the restaurant.
They could hear John grunting from the destroyed bar. John shoved a chunk of the slate countertop off of him and sat up and pulled a small chunk of wood from his arm. That last attack hurt but didn’t take him out of the fight. John had hurt the twins with the last attack. He briefly noticed them walking out of the restaurant. He looked back at the wall and saw a katana. He tore it off the wall and ran outside. John ran out the door and saw a helicopter landing in the parking lot.
“I didn’t hear no fucking bell,” John yelled and ran toward the twins, “We ain’t fucking done.”
Lisa let go of Lex and tried to send an attack at John. He plowed through the ice chunk that was sent at him and targeted Lex. Lex was wobbly on his feet and jumped to his right and landed on his side and was slow to get up. He looked up and saw John swinging a sword at him. John was too close, so Lex was helpless to dodge the attack entirely. He managed to move slightly to his right at the last second, as the katana sliced downward it connected with his collarbone and sheered easily through it and sliced his left arm clear off.
Lex howled in pain. Lisa winced as their connection even shared pain. John was smiling as he brought the sword back for a finishing attack. But just then the door on the helicopter opened and John was shot with several stun rounds. John tried to reset their effects but stumbled backward. He had just enough control of his functions and threw himself over the pier and into the water below.
That was a dangerous thing he had the presence of mine to do, but if he was in the water it’d take too long for them to retrieve him. John figured if he fell to the ground in the parking lot he could be taken with the twins. An uncomfortable chance at drowning was preferred to being kidnapped.
“Fuck, he’s in the water,” one of the men shouted as they stepped out of the helicopter.
“Target is off the board, get the twins, we need to get out of here immediately. Target van is approaching rapidly,” the leader of the group commanded.
“Lex is seriously injured get the med-pad out.”
“Get them in the chopper NOW!” the leader hollered, “DEAL WITH MED-PAD IN THE CHOPPER.”
Lisa was pushed into the chopper. One man picked Lex up and ran back and pushed him in the chopper. They couldn’t find his arm though. The door closed behind the last one that got in. The med-pad was applied to Lex to stabilize his condition.
Alice and the rest of the group pulled in just as the chopper flew off. John was climbing up a ladder rather gingerly and hopped over the railing when he saw an armed and armored Alice and Andern running toward him. John grabbed his tablet and held a finger up to halt any questions the group had.
“Yeah, pay the mortgage and then wire three hundred thousand to their account. I’ll send an apology on behalf of Naval Intelligence,” John was talking into the phone to someone, “No, I said pay the bloody mortgage, then three hundred thousand on top of it all. That’s fair for this fuck up and the mess I made.”
John walked back into the restaurant and tried to put the sword back onto the wall. He then went into the back room and found a garbage bag. A minute later he was walking out of the back on the phone with the owner of the restaurant.
“Yes, there was an attack, which won’t be publicized, that occurred at, in, and around your restaurant. We apologize for the inconvenience. I’ve ordered payment of three hundred thousand credits and your mortgage is paid off as well. All of this is tax-free. I would suggest sending someone over to lock the building up too.”
John emerged from the restaurant with the garbage bag and calmly walked over to where Lex’s arm lay on the ground. He picked it up and tossed it into the garbage bag. After he tied it shut, he turned and saw his friends.
“Looks like I have some explaining to do.”