Age of Redemption, page 16
part #2 of Titan Code Series
“No, shit.” Tessa responded with dripping sarcasm, “What would you have me do? I’m fighting myself here if you haven’t noticed.”
Finn thought for a moment, “This is a test tube clone meaning they gave it a rapid growth hormone. This monster has only been alive for a few months at the most.”
Tessa continued struggling to hold her power, “Tell me something I don’t know. How can I kill it? Can I get some helpful insight?”
“Tessa, you’ve trained for years. This thing hasn’t had the amount of training you have. It might have your power, but it doesn’t have your martial arts skills or your strategic combat capabilities. That’s the advantage you have. Experience.”
Tessa gaped at him in horror, “You want me to fight this thing hand to hand. That’s messed up.”
“No, you’ll need to use your power, but incorporate your combat skills to gain the upper hand.”
The stream of energy stopped, and Tessa let down her shield. She used Finn’s advice and charged her doppelganger. The Director backed up behind the contingent of H.I.V.E guards for fear that Tessa might go after her. A wise choice; Tessa wanted nothing more than to choke the life out of that bitch.
For the moment, Tessa needed to focus on her evil twin. She charged and blinked into striking range of her twin, and with a powerful right round kick, she sent her double crashing through the exterior shell of the arc. Tessa’s super strength meant the impact was extra forceful. The result left a hole in the hull and a hysterical science Director. Tessa figured if she couldn’t blow up the arc, she could at least destroy it, even if she had to tear it apart with her own hands.
Tessa followed her twin into the bowels of the arc, and Finn followed. If he remained behind and powerless, H.I.V.E would sweep him up in a heartbeat. Tessa drew her batons, readying her next action.
The lighting in the hull flickered under strain. Tessa’s implosion into the vessel created instabilities in the electrical system. The strobe lighting made it difficult to see ahead, but she made out the outline of a hostile figure down a hallway. The figure glowed with the pinkish purple color of her signature energy power, and Tessa anticipated the next attack. She pushed Finn aside and tore a nearby metal door off its hinges.
Tessa positioned the door to shield her from the energy blast. She charged forward with the door and her power to repel the strike, sending the energy back to its maker. The energy struck her twin, sending her flying back further inside the vessel. Tessa had these powers much longer than her clone and with experience identified more limitations and capabilities of those powers. Finn was right; her opponent’s lack of knowledge was her advantage.
Tessa climbed forward through the rubble in pursuit of her clone, careful to avoid exposed sparking wires and sharp protrusions on her journey into the depths of the arc. She was familiar with the engineering specs of the original arc, and H.I.V.E changed little from their last arc model, which she destroyed. Tessa approached the giant mess hall in search of her target while Finn trailed behind her.
Tessa turned to Finn, “You should take this opportunity as a distraction and run.”
“I’m not leaving you here.” It was sweet he wanted to stay, but stupid.
Tessa turned to him, “You don’t have a choice. Without your powers, you’re a sitting duck. One of us needs to get out of here.”
He realized she was right and turned down another corridor of the arc to find safety. Finn was a wily guy, and Tessa hoped he would sneak his way back to the surface. It would be more difficult than usual, but he could manage.
A commercial-sized refrigerator came hurling through the dining room. Tessa tried to blink out of the way, but she wasn’t quick enough. The fridge hit her like a freight train, sending her smashing into a wall with the refrigerator crushing her. The intense pain only distracted her for a moment. She couldn’t allow this monstrosity to get the best of her. She let out a battle cry and hurled the fridge off her body and back through the mess hall. It almost hit her twin, but she knocked it away with an arm, deflecting it to the side.
Tessa stood up from the surrounding rubble of twisted tables and chairs. She brushed herself off and stepped toward her doppelganger. “I realize you don’t know any better, but you’re just a pawn. She’ll use you up and throw you out like she does everyone else. When she no longer needs you, she’ll leave you here to die with the rest of us.”
Her mirror image sneered, sending a shiver down her spine. It wasn’t right to see herself so sinister, “The Director has told me of my purpose and why I was created. She never promised me anything more than this mission. She designed me without a conscious or emotion; that way, I don’t feel. I don’t have the same weaknesses as you, and I’m glad to die when my mission is complete.”
Tessa figured her reasoning would not work, but she had to try. Plus, the conversation provided a brief opportunity to catch her breath after being clobbered by the refrigerator.
Tessa took a deep breath and charged again. A flurry of energy attacks and super strength punches ensued between blinking to and from different positions. They both tried their best to outdo the other, but they were the same. Tessa landed several hits by either punching or kicking. The fake Tessa was slow to block because she was less experienced in fighting.
Tessa let herself be distracted by her evil twin and failed to see the H.I.V.E agents enter the mess hall with some odd-looking gun slung over one of their shoulders. Tessa was too busy fighting herself. The two Alpha Evos collided in a violent melee, tearing apart the surrounding arc.
The H.I.V.E gun operator tried to find the perfect opportunity to get both Evos in the sights. When he did, the gun released a stream of concentrated sound waves so high pitched and intense; both Tessa stopped fighting and covered their ears, falling to the ground in agonizing pain. Not only were her ears on the verge of bleeding, but she felt like her insides might explode. She struggled to stand, and one of the H.I.V.E agents fiddled with the gun to increase the intensity of the sound waves.
Tessa was incapacitated, but so was her twin. The Director stepped over the rubble and into the mess hall, gaping at the mess the two Evos made of her creation. She wore a pair of high-grade earplugs, so the sounds didn’t affect her. She lifted a remote in her hand, and with the press of a button, she deactivated her cloned Tessa who fell limp to the ground. The Director now knew which Tessa was real, and which one was her creation.
The Director pointed to the gun they used to tag Finn and gestured toward Tessa. A H.I.V.E agent made his way around the room into position. With a gun aimed at the back of Tessa’s head, the Director signaled for the sound wave beam to drop at the same time the power dampener shot into the back of her head behind her ear.
Tessa tried to seize her power. It was faint, but she could still sense her power floating there just out of reach. She grabbed the Director with what energy power she could muster and squeezed. It took so much focus to use her power that she didn’t notice the H.I.V.E agent sneaking up behind her to fasten a metal collar around her neck. As soon as the collar clicked shut, Tessa was entirely cut off from her power.
In a swift reaction moment, Tessa used what resources she had left to grapple the H.I.V.E agent to the ground, snapping his neck and taking his sidearm. She opened fire on the handful of H.I.V.E agents in the room, including the Director. They all scrambled for cover, and Tessa did the same. As she fired from behind an overturned table, she clawed at the collar with her other hand, but the collar was on tight with no manual release that she could find.
Panic set in as H.I.V.E surrounded her, and Tessa realized she would not escape this one. She was outnumbered and outgunned without her power. It wasn’t long before she was out of ammo, and H.I.V.E agents swarmed in to take her. She tried to fight off as many as possible. She tried to run but didn’t get far.
They cuffed her hands and drug her from the arc wreckage. She screamed and cursed at them. Tessa vowed that she would get free, and there would be hell to pay. She was determined to get free, eventually. They had nothing strong enough to hold an Alpha Evo for long.
25
H.I.V.E agents drug Tessa from the arc and back into the main bay area. By this time, she was bloodied and beaten, but refused to give the Director satisfaction in seeing her defeated. Tessa tried to maintain her composure, but that facade failed when she exited the arc.
Finn knelt on the concrete floor outside the arc with his hands above his head. Two H.I.V.E agents stood behind him with rifles aimed at the back of his head. If he defied them, they would take him out execution-style. She hoped Finn escaped to warn the others, but he didn’t make it. They were on their own.
“Let him go,” Tessa was in no position to make demands, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t try.
The Director cackled, “You presume to give me orders.” She looked down on Tessa, battered and beaten. “No, I think not.” The Director addressed her minions. “Take her to the memory lab and bring him. He can watch.”
H.I.V.E agents led Tessa through a maze of corridors outside the arc chamber. The Director swiped her key card, and the door slid open to reveal a stark white room. It reminded Tessa of the sterile hospital room she woke up to when H.I.V.E kidnapped and imprisoned her the first time.
There were two chairs in the center of the room positioned back to back. Above them hung an apparatus affixed to the ceiling. Wires connected the strange suspended device to computer monitors scattered about the room forming an electrical spiderweb on the ceiling.
Agents forced Tessa to take a seat and then zip-tied her arms and legs to the chair, preventing her from struggling. Fake Tessa entered the room, and the Director seated her in the chair facing the opposite direction, positioning the two Tessa’s back to back. The Director sat Finn in front of her so he could watch, and she would remember what’s at stake.
Two male scientists in white lab coats entered the room and controlled the contraption above her from the bay of computers. A wired helmet descended from the machine to rest atop her head. Tessa got a terrible sensation deep in her stomach. This apparatus would access her brain and would not bode well for her. H.I.V.E inside her head would spell disaster.
One scientist secured a strap under her chin, so the helmet fit snug. He then retreated to the computer monitors, “Initiate memory extraction.”
Tessa panicked, but there was nothing she could do. She was helpless without her powers. H.I.V.E had her strapped down tight with no escape in sight. Tessa watched the fear in Finn’s eyes grow as the machine whined and power up. Lights of blue and white flashed around the room, and Tessa sensed the device probing her mind. She couldn’t conceive of what they might search for within her mind, let alone what they might do with any information they found.
The machine powered down after a few moments, and the scientists scuttled about, “Initiating memory upload.”
The machine powered back up, but this time Tessa didn’t feel the machine touching her mind. She saw lights flashing from behind her and reflecting off surfaces. She realized what they were doing. They copied her memories and gave them to the fake Tessa. Now the clone would have her ability, knowledge, and her memories. This monster would know everything about her. The only saving grace was that the twin might understand Tessa’s combat skills, but she was still unpracticed. In physical combat training, muscle memory was critical, and the clone might have the memory, but she lacked the trained muscle.
The machine powered down, and the scientists unfastened their new creation. Tessa couldn’t see the Director, but she heard every word. “You have a new mission, my pet. I want you to infiltrate her network of allies. Report back to me on their activities, and I will instruct you on how to proceed. Together we can bring this scourge to an end.”
The fake Tessa walked around to look her dead in the eye. The evil grin across her face made Tessa sick to her stomach. It was an unsettling sensation to witness your own flesh and blood glare at you like a hungry predator. Her evil twin seemed to revel in her suffering. How had the Director engineered her to be so cruel? Maybe her memories would soften the creature or make it understand the truth of H.I.V.E.
The doppelganger walked toward Finn, glancing back over her shoulder at Tessa, still strapped in the chair. The creature turned to Finn and then locked lips. She took a long drawn out kiss as Finn attempted to struggle against her advance. She used her strength to hold him in place, and one hand on his chin prevented him from jerking his head back.
The Director applauded her diabolical creation, “Perfect. Make sure that her friends receive a devastated Tessa. One who is mourning the loss of her lover.” The imposter smiled at Tessa one more time and then exited the room.
Tessa prayed that her friends were canny enough to recognize a fake. Sam and Arica grew up with her, and she had to believe they knew her well enough to foil this ruse. Her friends would see through the facade.
The Director motioned for the guards to take Tessa and Finn to another room. This room was full of Tesla Coils with an energy core set in the center of the room. Tessa smiled upon entering. “What’s wrong? Is your pet not strong enough to do your bidding?”
“She hasn’t discovered your secret to powering the coils and charging the core. She’s only been on this earth a short time. There’s much for her to catch up on, but she is learning. Instead of waiting, I’ll have you charge the core since you’ve already succeeded once.”
Tessa’s smile turned to a sadistic smirk, “You might as well kill me. I’ll never help you.”
“I figured you might say that.” Marlize turned to a mirrored wall, and Tessa realized it must be a two-way mirror. She waved her arm, “Bring them in.”
Tessa’s family entered from behind the mirror. Her father, mother, and brother entered the room at gunpoint, bound and looking haggard.
A seething fury of hate fumed inside Tessa. “You’ll burn for this.”
The Director dismissed her threat, “For now, be a good girl and work your magic, or they die. Simple and easy. It’s your choice. If you try anything, they die along with your boyfriend.”
Using a handheld remote for her collar, the Director allowed Tessa to access her power one more time through the collar dampening device. Tears welled up in her eyes as she realized that if she charged the core, she would save her family but be the damnation of humanity. If H.I.V.E had a working core, they could power their arc and leave everyone behind on earth to die as the planet fell apart. As much as she wanted to rise and sacrifice herself for the greater good, she couldn’t sacrifice her family. She couldn’t watch them die.
Tessa had no choice but to charge the core, and that was what she did. The only hope she had was to escape H.I.V.E again and finish her mission. Tessa wasn’t ready to accept defeat. She would fight to the end and avenge humanity.
26
Tessa did what she had to do to save her family. She charged H.I.V.E’s core, hoping she could escape and destroy it later. Security was tight, but she remained determined to right this wrong. H.I.V.E did not deserve this power. They would use it for evil and watch innocent people die.
Once the Director had what she needed from Tessa, agents whisked her away. They loaded Tessa and her family onto an underground train. Their train car was dark and cold, and H.I.V.E chained them to the floor like animals.
Alone in the train car, Tessa could speak to her family. “I am so sorry this happen. I promise to make it right. We will get out of here as soon as possible.”
Tessa’s father spoke for the family. “We recognized the risks as your family, and we could have run. We decided as a family to stay and make a stand. We are family, and we will always stand together.”
Her mother agreed, “We are proud of you, Tessa. You are always strong, and we never expected you would rise to such power. Your heart inspires people. Most people want to do the right thing, and we all realize H.I.V.E is corrupt.”
“You have such a beautiful family, Tessa.” Finn’s family abandoned him when they discovered his Evo abilities. So, he ran to the rebels rather than be a H.I.V.E lab rat.
“Finn, you are part of my family too. You’ve always had my best interested in mind.” She wanted him to appreciate the love and support of a family. “We will get out of this together, and we will get our revenge on H.I.V.E for this.”
After a short train ride, they arrived at an underground station realizing they were prisoners to be processed. Each of them checked in, and security cataloged their belongings. Tessa had to watch as they processed her goggles, scout, and all her weapons. She also watched them file away her digital music. With their possessions taken, they were forced to change into orange jumpsuits to process their clothing.
After processing, security provided them each with a blanket and a pillow and led to prison. The prison was an open facility with common areas full of prisoners and cells along the outskirts of the commons on four levels. A guard pushed them inside, expecting them to find their own bed.
The common area was full of metal tables and a jumble of H.I.V.E criminals. Many of them being human, but Tessa noticed a few convicts wore collars similar to her Finn. They stationed guards throughout the balconies, watching the inmates below. A guard tower in the center of the common room towered above to monitor activity within the prison. The security was tight here, and Tessa guessed this is where H.I.V.E kept their most wanted criminals.
Tessa noticed the fear in her mother’s eyes. She wasn’t accustomed to defending herself. Tessa’s dad and brother were familiar with conflict while securing the farm and family assets; she felt they would be all right. That meant that her mother could not wander the prison unaccompanied. She planned with her brother to make sure someone was always with her mother.
