෴Hex ෴
෴Midnight෴
෴Wraith෴
෴And more෴
෴෴෴ ෴෴෴ ෴෴෴
Dr. Online
෴෴෴ ෴෴෴ ෴෴෴
෴෴෴
6 days ago
෴෴෴
Midnight touched down on the Mongolian steppe. His armor form looked like he’d bulked up, with a more heavy duty thick look than usual. A torpedo shaped sidecar accompanied him. Metal flowed away from the sidecar revealing Hex. “You ok in there?” He asked.
She coughed, then cleared her throat. “For certain definitions of ‘ok’. But I can see why people aren’t just lining up to take rides with you,” she replied, dropping into a crouch and touching the ground with her hand.
“Is there some way I can make it more comf—” he started.
“Nope. I can hack it, let's just get done here. We need a lot more money, and we don’t have time to waste,” she grumbled.
He shrugged, the massive armor mass around him shifting fluidly with his movements. “What are you even spending it on? I already gave you so m—”
“Yep, I’ve already liquidated it, and we already spent most of it. We need a lot more. Can you get me a few tons of precious metals when we’re done here?” She wiped her hand on her pants and checked her rifle.
He looked out at the herd of grazing cattle in the distance, then at her rifle. “We’re buying cattle, not extorting anyone. Do you mind if I hold on to that? Hold up, a few tons? What the hell are you buying, an island?”
“Ooh, that’s an idea, but don’t worry about it. We’ve just got some expenses coming up,” she folded up the rifle, handed it to him, and watched it sink into a lump on his back, “More importantly, you need to do another sweep. He’s out there somewhere. It's already been too long. I need him, and I'm worried. We need to find him!”
Midnight nodded, his expression grim.
A short while later they were talking to the leader of a small group of nomadic herders, bargaining for a few head of cattle.
Once the business was concluded, Midnight took the cattle the final miles to Mercator.
While she waited for him to return, she tried to make sense of what she’d seen just before the Nona aspect was torn away from her.
Elsewhere, another Hex aspect told her adopted children that grandma was taking grandpa to go to the hospital, because he’s very sick. She avoided the word cancer, and terminal, and didn’t bring up death, although that was all she was thinking about.
෴෴෴
Wesley ‘Wraith’ Smith pulled up to the safehouse in the eastern suburbs of Atlanta. He looked at his phone with intent, causing it to send a coded message, then glanced at his notes one last time as he waited.
Hex appeared in the empty carport and walked down to meet him. This aspect wore a smart business suit with a knee-length skirt, and carried a briefcase. “You ready for this?” She called out.
He got out of the car, shrugged, and started up the path to the door. “Well, not like you really told me what I’d be doing,” he looked up at the unassuming residential house, “so I assume I’ve never done whatever this is before, but I guess?”
They stepped into the mantrap disguised as a front porch, and rang the bell. Wraith shivered. “Whoa, full on faraday cage here. So quiet. Hardly anything but some incidental EM and some kind of ELF signal. This is kind of nice. I might have to get a faraday cage for my house,” he looked around the small mantrap with some concern, “I guess it’s good we’re legit. This room has a lot of lethal hardware I wouldn’t have a chance at stopping.”
“That’s kind of the point,” a voice came from the speaker.
Hex waved up at a camera. “Hey Tiffany, I’m back with the promised technopath,” she looked to Wraith, “Your new offices are all inside faraday cages, you’re welcome,” Hex replied.
Tiffany looked at them through the camera, “So we do the whole verification thing even if it's you?"
Hex nodded, her expression solemn. “Yes, everyone. No matter who it is. Even, and especially me.”
“Ok then,” Tiffany launched into the validation procedure.
Getting the rest of the way into the house involved a drawn out sign-countersign between Hex and Tiffany. Once they’d passed her tests, she smiled and let them in. They left the mantrap and entered the house.
Jill was inside, just putting a AKS-12 shotgun back into a concealed panel on the wall. She smiled at both of them. “Good to see you. Some of our guests are going a bit stir crazy already.”
“Damn right we are! It’s the end of summer. We should be outside getting some fresh air, not indoors all day!” Jim called out from the basement. The back of the balding black man’s close-cropped head was the first thing Hex and Wraith saw as he came up the stairs.
The muscular former gym teacher shook hands with Hex and Wraith. “I’m Jim Hunter. Good to meet you. I heard you were coming. I’d like to volunteer,” a southern Georgia accent colored his speech.
Wraith looked at Hex with confusion, then back at Jim. “Volunteer for what?”
Jim shrugged. “Not sure I even care. If it gets me outside, I’ll volunteer.”
Hex held up a hand. “Hold up, let's head downstairs. I have something I need to tell all of you,” she looked at the two women now sitting in the front room, “You’re welcome to come along.”
Downstairs, she looked over the group. She’d interrupted a card game of some sort. Mark and Cindi sat next to each other. A week after his crippling injury, the new leg was fully formed, but still the size of a small child’s leg. Hex avoided looking too close at the limb, finding the sight of a child’s leg fused to a man’s body genuinely disturbing to look at.
The Redding brothers, Bill and Chris sat across from the couple. Chris looked bored, but composed. Bill gave off an aura of barely suppressed manic energy.
She took a position where she could easily see all five of them. “Ok, this gentleman here,” she pointed to Wraith, “is going to take a crack at deactivating those chips in your head’”
The room erupted in noise. Impromptu cheers battled with sudden questions. She waited for the room to quiet down.
“Yes, I’m sure you have questions. Let me say my piece and then ask your questions,” she looked at each of them in turn.
“First, you need to know this isn’t risk free. We’ve never dealt with this sort of thing, Wesl-Wraith has never seen it. Second, we might have to cut you open to do it,” she paused, but the room stayed quiet, “If so, Jill assured me she can get a small incision healed up very quickly,” she pointedly didn’t look at Mark’s leg, “Amputations take a lot longer.”
“Helluva lot faster than never!” Mark interjected softly, pulling Cindy in for a side arm hug.
Hex nodded at that, but continued, “Third and last, we’re going to try to get these devices turned off, and give you a new identity, a bank account with startup funds, and a little paper cash to get you going. If you’re still here tomorrow, we’ll be back with a job offer.” She looked at Wraith, who nodded.
Wraith cleared his throat. “First thing I want to mention, is that you all have a device that’s emitted periodic ELF signals. I sense it from all of you. It’s being stopped by the house faraday cage, but if you went outside, whatever it’s sending would be picked up somewhere. ELF has a very long range.”
Bill spoke up. “How much cash?”
Wraith looked to Hex, who shook her head slightly. “We’ll go over that afterwards.”
“I got a right to know!” He insisted, lurching to his feet and pointing at her aggressively.
Her expression hardened. “No, you don't. You’re only alive right now because he not only didn’t kill you, he took the time to save you all instead,” she waved her hand over the group then pointed at Bill, “Moreover, that time and effort spent, cost a good man his life. So you want to play like that? You know where the door is, feel free to walk out now.”
She leaned back against the wall with exaggerated casual movements. “Of course, for all you know, that thing in your head will blow the second you step outside.”
As Bill started to get further wound up. Chris stood up, put his hand on his brother’s shoulder and muttered in his ear, “Relax bro, remember what happened to Dave. This isn’t the time.” He lowered his voice and continued speaking for a few seconds before sitting back down.
Bill took a deep breath and then nodded. “Yeah all right, my bad,” he sat down, “Please continue.”
“It’s enough to get you on your feet,” she assured them as a compromise.
Jim raised his hand. “I volunteer to go first.”
Wraith nodded.
Hex watched the room for a moment, then spoke up again. “Any other questions before we get started?”
“What happens if we get caught out there?” Chris asked in a low voice that carried through the room.
Wraith looked to Hex. “I’ll take this one,” she looked at Chris, then around the room, “If you take the ID and money, you should probably keep a low profile and consider expatriating. If you stick around and take the job offer, you won’t really have to worry about that.”
“Nah, that's not what I mean. Aren't you worried if we go and get caught, we’ll narc out your little safe house here?” He replied, sitting back in the chair and looking at his cards.
She shrugged. “A few hours after you all leave, this house will be shuttered, and we’ll sell it. Nothing illegal is even happening here. You were all illegally detained and subjected to illegal medical experiments. Also, let's be clear, the only loser in that scenario is the one who went to the authorities to tell on us. Best case you’re back in prison, worst case, well, I’m hearing rumors of newer chips like yours that do a lot more than just explode,” she paused and looked around the room, “Any, other questions?”
Cindi looked at Mark then put her hand up. “What kind of job are you offering? My Mark isn't exactly on his feet yet.”
Wraith fielded that question. “We’ve got quite a few openings that are pure desk work. Logistics, research, communications, and field support, to name a few. If you want to do more later, I’m told there will be plenty of field work opportunities.”
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Around the room, heads nodded.
Jim stood up. “Let’s do this!”
Later, while Wraith worked, Hex cornered Jill to ask about healing someone with terminal liver cancer. She left a few minutes later with a hopeless expression on her face.
෴෴෴
5 days ago
෴෴෴
Hex watched Midnight hover dangerously close to the bubbling lava through a series of cameras. “You got this. Just pull in all the precious metals you can.”
Midnight floated amid a net of thin strands of metal flowing out of the lava and cooling into thin solid streams a few feet out of the lava. “Easy for you to say. I’ve got heat resistance, not immunity. I’m going to have to take a break and cool down soon.”
“You drop in from space with your armor literally burning off you, glowing white hot. How can lava be worse?” Hex asked, genuine curiosity in her voice.
Midnight chuckled. “I’ll give you a lecture on heat and temperature input vs total heat absorption sometime when you’re ready for a nap. Just trust that this is heating my overall armor up more than having some thin outer layers heat quickly then ablating away. I can slow heat transfer through the metal, but not stop it entirely.”
A few short minutes later he abandoned his efforts, then plunged into the ocean a few miles away. A blast of steam from flash boiled water erupted around his armor. Once the leidenfrost boiling effect abated, his armor cooled rapidly.
“What’s the haul?” He asked.
She looked at the containers of nearly pure gold, and several other smaller lumps of other lustrous metals. “Well, you didn't label them or anything. But we got eighteen pounds of gold, and then a bunch of other metals. What’s the blueish one?”
He landed next to her, his armor already flowing away from his head. “That’s osmium, semi precious, but it’s for me. I use it to make the best alloys. The rest, we’ve got platinum, palladium, a little iridium, some chromium and vanadium, both also for me, and that little blob of metal at the end is rhodium, and it’s probably worth more than the rest combined.”
She sighed and looked at the pile. “Ok, I can admit it. I was wrong, and you were right. Benthic mining is the way to go.”
He shrugged. “It wasn’t a bad idea, got more iridium, rhodium and osmium than I would have predicted.”
She smiled a tight smile that was almost a frown. “Good. Now it’s time for another sweep. Go with a bigger circle, or just pick a direction and expand the search.”
He let out a long, patient breath. “Ok, I’ll go look again. You good to move all this?” He asked as the osmium and vanadium merged into his armor. He glanced back to see her and the metals gone. He chuckled, "I'll take that as a yes."
෴෴෴
Hex appeared inside the Atlanta safehouse at the agreed upon time. She looked over to see Tiffany on the couch chatting with Jim. They were sitting on the couch looking out over the sleepy suburb street, sitting close, each partially turned toward the other.
“Why, if I were ten years younger, you’d be in trouble, young man. You’re too much of a charmer!” she said with a laugh.
Jim smiled, his white teeth a stark contrast with his dark skin. “You’re not that old. Besides, you’re an interesting lady. I enjoy interesting people. I guess that’s why I keep ending up with such interesting, naughty girls.”
Tiffany giggled, the sound and action looking a bit out of place in a woman her age. “Well, I never! Just what are you trying to say? Are you calling me naughty?”
Hex realized they hadn’t seen or heard her arrive, and cleared her throat awkwardly. The two on the couch abruptly sat up and shifted apart like teenagers caught making out.
“Hey there, I’m here to deliver the job offers,” she said by way of greeting.
Tiffany frowned, “Bad news. Those Redding boys already skedaddled. Right after Jill left to head up to see that other boy about his hands.”
Hex sighed. “Well, he thought they might. Freedom of choice and all. They might be back when they realize how rough that new anti-enhanced legislation is going to make life for them, within or outside the law,” she shrugged, “Got much bigger fish to fry than those two idiots.”
She looked at the two of them on the couch again with a smirk, “Let's get this business done, so I can let you two get back down to business,” she winked at them, laughing at their ‘caught’ expressions.
Jim and Tiffany headed downstairs with her, exchanging innuendo all the way.
෴෴෴
4 days ago
෴෴෴
Hex appeared on the roof of an unassuming-looking convalescence and hospice facility in the north Georgia mountains seconds after Jill sent the message that she’d arrived. She blinked down to the gravel parking lot next to Jill. The two of them chatted while they waited.
Midnight landed five minutes later. He left a large dark metal block in the kudzu surrounding the edge of the grounds, then shifted to his business suit appearance, “Sorry to keep you waiting ladies, I’m fast, but I’ll never be as fast as this one,” he gestured to Hex.
Jill coughed. “You know, I had to drive nearly three hours. If you fast movers wanted to help a girl out, I wouldn't have said no to a ride.”
Hex shook her head slowly. “You say that now, but I can't carry you, and I rate his flights at roughly negative five stars.”
Midnight shrugged. “She’s not wrong, but I’ll be happy to offer you a ride next time.”
They went inside and found the patient, Chris ‘Chrome’ Johanssen, sitting up in bed, with a picture frame precariously balanced on his twisted flesh. Cade ‘Barricade’ was sitting beside him. The two of them were talking to Rachel ‘Razor’ Messerschmidt.
The chatter died down immediately when the three filed into the room.
Jill paled at the sight of Chris’ ruined hands. She looked at Midnight. “I don't know if I can help with this! I’ve never seen damage like this.”
Midnight studied the distorted flesh. “This does look bad. I’m a lot less confident myself,” he looked at Chris, “Do you prefer Chris, or Chrome?”
Chris started to shrug, then his eyes shot to his hands, and he aborted the movement. “I’ll answer to either. I’m new to the whole code name thing, so Chris might be marginally better,” he looked at his hands again. “Not like I can live up to the other name, anyway.”
Midnight sighed. “Well, let's give this a try,” he glanced over at Hex, “And yes, I’ll check again when the sun comes up there. The outpost was missing a vehicle when I looked yesterday. Something might be going on there after all.”
She nodded, her gaze filled with quiet intensity. “Good. I know how harsh that area is, but I can’t accept that he’s gone. He can't be gone. He just can't.” she didn’t allow herself to think about what losing him would mean.
෴෴෴
3 days ago.
෴෴෴
“I don’t know who she represents, but someone is making some big liquidity movements. Too many big players in the metals market to know for sure,” A New York bank exchange manager said to his security specialist as they watched the young lady walk away. Both men focussed a bit more on her receding curves than was strictly professional.
Hex walked out of the NYC precious metals exchange, turned a corner into a dark alley and vanished.
Around the globe, other Hex aspects were simultaneously converting sizeable sums of hard assets into currency at the other precious metals exchanges.
At nearly the same time, another Hex aspect appeared in the tape marked spot in one of Wraith’s new offices. “Wesley, is this gonna work?”
He leaned back in his chair and smiled. “Yes, this will do nicely. I could oversee a global network with this hardware no problem,” His eyes snapped upward. “Whoa. Another satlink coming online?”
She nodded with a smile. “We’re hiding in plain sight. The company is leasing satellite bandwidth from every major communication backbone. We’re reselling about 99% of it. It’s all encrypted, including our traffic.”
He smiled. “I like. So we’ll have three mobile setups like this, and I can access it all remotely? I think I like my new boss more already.”
She rolled her eyes. “Well, just wait till he’s at all hurried, stressed, or in a bind. All his people skills basically vanish and he just—”
Wraith cut her off. “You. I meant you. He might be the big man up top, but let’s face it, you’re running this show.”
She blushed and smiled. “Well, thank you. I’m doing my best.”
He put up his hand and they high fived. “I think this is going well!” He exclaimed.
Back in the convalescence facility, things were not going well.
“I can’t do anything about it!” Jill groaned, “His body doesn’t even consider it damage. I can heal the cracked skin, and the broken finger bones, but your body is saying this is how your hands are supposed to be!” She looked at Hex with a helpless shrug, “It’s the same reason I can’t just heal the body from cancer or autoimmune diseases.”
Midnight sagged into a chair next to Jill, and looked at Chris. “Are you sure you can’t assume your metal form?”
Chris shook his head. “I’ve tried every day, a hundred times a day! I can’t seem to do it.”
Midnight nodded. “That’s unfortunate. I think you’d have a lot more luck changing yourself back if you could. I don’t know what it all means, but I really don’t like all the errors I’m seeing in your ability chain right now.”
෴෴෴
2 days ago.
෴෴෴
“Good news! You’re officially back online. The distributed Norns network is running.” Hex proclaimed with a wide grin.
Midnight stopped in the air, hovering a few feet above the Alaskan waters around the outer Aleutian islands. He activated some dormant hardware. Moments later the security handshakes completed and his other mic and earpiece went live. With a surprising amount of anxiety, he activated the mic and spoke.
“Midnight actual to Norns, report.”
“Good morning, sir, I’ll be your Norn at the moment. No hostile activity in your area, aside from what might be a good sized Orca pod that looks pretty curious about you.”
“Sasha!? Is that you? I thought you weren’t coming back.” He couldn't stop his voice from quivering.
Sasha laughed. It was a darker, more ominous sound than he remembered. “Well, sir, your partner, she made a compelling case, and a more compelling offer. She also made certain promises I expect to be kept.”
“Whatever she promised, I’ll make sure it happens,” he promised without hesitation.
Paolo cut in. “Good, we’ll hold you to that.”
“Paolo! You’re back too?” Relief and happiness were clear in Midnight’s voice.
“Ci, Sasha and I will normally be covering Zulu to GMT +5. We wanted to be here for the big reveal. We’re a smaller team now, but things are looking good so far,” the young man replied, “Your man Wesley is quite on top of things.”
Midnight landed next to Hex, dropping his cargo of precious metals and wiping his eyes. “Midnight actual out, we’ll talk later, Norns.”
He shed his armor, letting it fall to the ground behind him with a clank, and pulled her into a sudden, enthusiastic embrace. “Thank you! Thank you so much. I don’t know how you did it, but thank you.”
She patted his back, a wry smile on her face. “It wasn’t as hard as you might think. You already had people distributed across the world, and your finances are automated enough that they’re still getting paychecks. You lost your headquarters, and a lot of good people. But you didn’t lose everyone.”
He continued to hold her tight, his voice shaking as though overcome with emotion. “I didn’t stop to think about everyone outside the primary office. I just had too much focus on the problem in front of me.”
She patted his back once more. “Well, right now, we need to round up another few head of cattle right? We’ve still got one more to save, and at least we know where she is!”
He drew several long breaths, slowly regaining control of his breathing.
She gently pushed him away. “This whole Raz, but not my Raz thing, is a bit weird. Let’s not risk making it more weird.”
He straightened up and nodded. “Yeah, of course. Anything I need to know about those promises?”
Her gaze hardened. “The promise is that we’re going to find out who did it, and whoever it is, she’s going to choose how they die,” she looked off into the distance, “I have a feeling she’ll be taking her time with that.”
He leaned back and shook his head with a frown. “I don’t like it, but I’m not sure if its because I want to do the same thing,” he shook his head and then looked her in the eye. “I’ll back your play.”
She laid a hand on his arm. “That reminds me. Wraith has an intel packet he’s distilled from all that hardware you brought over. He said he’s got some addresses, and some names.”
Midnight smiled, his savage expression revealing just a little too much teeth. “Now that is good news. As soon as we’re done with all this, we’ve got some people to find. For now, if you start negotiating the sale, I’ll do some more flyovers and see if I can find your Raz. Let me know when they’re ready for the payment and pickup.”
She shook her head. “I’m on it, but I have to ask. Are we going to have to go through this whole thing to buy a cow every single time, with everyone of these families?”
He shrugged and held up his hands with a weak smile. “It seems to be the way things work there,” he rolled his left shoulder, working and flexing the scarred flesh, “With any luck, we’ll find enough heavy hitters to solve this problem for real. No more cows, no more missing people.”
“Ok.” With that, she vanished. A second later, another aspect popped in. “I forgot to mention, I’ve directed resources to the search. He has to be out there, and alive, somewhere!” She vanished again before Midnight could reply.
After taking a moment to compose himself, he took to the sky, bound for South-Western Chad.
෴෴෴
Yesterday.
෴෴෴
“No. I’m coming with you. I need to see what’s happening.” She insisted.
The argument had gone on for too long. Midnight finally gave in. “Ok, but I’m on record saying this is a bad idea.”
The awkward flight of Midnight, Hex, and a cow proceeded toward the drop-off point.
When the stone door marking the opening to Mercator’s lair came into sight, Hex abruptly collapsed with a low groan.
Midnight backed up several miles and set her down. After delivering the cow, he returned to find her still out cold.
Elsewhere in the world, every other active Hex aspect had vanished.
Her mother and adopted children looked in horror as she vanished mid sentence from the breakfast table, her clothing falling to the chair.
Wraith’s logistics conversation was abruptly cut off when she vanished, leaving nothing but her business suit behind.
Her conversations with Jill in the safehouse, and Chris in the hospice care center were both cut off mid-word, leaving her clothing to fall to the floor.
Every other aspect vanished, but one.