Tuesday. 17:00 Delta One Sky Lounge, Washington Dulles IA.

“I think I understand what you went through all those years.” Alice said.

John laughed. “Welcome to military life. You either fucked up colossally or you’re a god damn hero. Only way anyone knows of you.”

“And how are you not the latter?” Alice asked.

“Because I got her captured.” John shook his head; he was still pissed that it happened that way. “And what we did isn’t something that the general population needs to know about.”

“And about the building that kinda got destroyed from the inside?” Alice tilted her head.

“No comment.”

“John.” She looked at him squarely.

“What do you know of homo sapiens superior?” John looked at Alice.

“The advanced man? It’s a theory but most don’t believe humans are in a position to evolve anymore.”

“It’s true, though humanity evolving is exceptionally difficult because of our positions in nature these days.” John shrugged.

“How?”

John shook his head. “Well, the how isn’t really understood. For some people though they are like halfway there to a different species. Their genes and DNA are slightly different than baseline humans, but they aren’t so different to be a separate species.”

“So, the super is entirely different than us?”

“Different than them, not us.” John said quietly.

Alice recoiled with that statement. “What do you mean us? I’m not a super.”

John pulled out his tablet and showed her a gene map of her. And of himself. Then overlayed them and showed where the similarities were.

“Not going to lie, I was surprised when I found out about your genetics this last week. I was going to say that I was surprised that you slipped through the cracks but with your family connections that may have had something to do with your results being hidden.”

“But I’m not.” Alice was very confused.

“No, you’re not like me in that sense, but you are different. It seems those psychic abilities appear to be a general quirk in our DNA. In any case the twins that attacked me one is a sapiens plus, the crazy boy, and the seemingly sane but lusty girl is the super. Interesting that even in twins they were slightly different.”

John got up when their flight announced it was starting to board. He extended his hand to help Alice up. He held her hand as the couple walked out of the lounge.

“So, what does this all mean?” Alice asked needing assurance.

“Well, the twins are a problem for me. As for the rest it is what it is. Wouldn’t worry about it, besides not like you can do anything about it.”

Alice hugged his arm. “Be safe. I mean it.”

“They don’t want me dead. You may want her head though.” John smiled.

“What? Why?”

“She wants to make babies with me.”

Alice frowned and pinched John. “Two things. That’s not funny and over my dead body.”

John laughed a little as the couple continued walking down the terminal. When they got to their gate, they entered the queue to board. The flight to Mobile was routine. John watched a college football game that was on. Alice watched a rom-com. When they landed the mood went from light and jovial to angry. John’s bag was the last one to be available for pickup.

“I could buy this god forsaken airline and my bags would still be held back.” John said through clenched teeth.

Alice desperately tried hard to not giggle since she knew this was something that seriously bugged him. But his reaction to it every single time was a little funny to those around them. They took the closest exit to the street and walked down the sidewalk until they found a car that was sent to them by Alice’s parents.

The two tossed their bags in the rear of the luxury SUV and got in the backseat. The drive to the Robertson estate took around forty-five minutes that evening. Alice had many questions about the twins, most of which John couldn’t answer since he didn’t know.

22:00 Robertson Estate

“Good evening you two. So good to see both of you.” Alice ran up and gave Kate a hug.

“Evening Kate. Thanks for having me here.” John just got out of the SUV.

“John, would you be a dear and head over to the office over there. Aaron would like to speak with you.”

“Roger. Cya in a bit.” John waived and walked across the driveway.

The building across from them was an on-site office building Aaron and Paul used to work when they weren’t at their corporate headquarters. John walked up to the oversized front doors and pulled the right door open. He walked in and headed towards Aaron’s office. He knocked on the glass door, Aaron looked up and waved him in.

“Look Mark, take a look at our new bid and let me know what you think. There’s some wiggle room available to make a deal that works for us both. I think what we’ve offered is more than fair though.”

“I’ll review it in the morning and will let you know my opinion.” Mark said.

Aaron ended the call. “John, so good to see you.” Aaron reached over his desk to give his future son-in-law a handshake.

John accepted the handshake. “Thanks for having me again.”

“Pour yourself a drink, I have a couple things I’d like to chat about. A serious one too.”

John turned around and obliged Aaron. He gave himself a very health pour of a forty-year-old Lagavulin. “Before you ask me your questions does this emblem or person mean anything to you?”

John pulled out his tab and showed him an image of the man that ordered the twins to attack him.

“Never seen him in particular, but that logo appears to be from the Mercantilist Union.”

“Well fuck me sideways. I was really hoping that wasn’t the case.” John frowned. “Though that is to be expected given why he was kidnapped. Sorry talking through things.”

Aaron smiled. “That answered a couple questions of mine. Though I had a question about these two.”

“Lex and Lisa. Lex is barely sane and she’s mostly sane. Alice would love to kill her.” John shook his head.

“What do we do about them?” Aaron asked.

John got up and walked over to the window and leaned against it looking outside. He smelled the scotch and took a drink. He shook his head.

“We don’t do anything. It’s on me at some point, ideally kill them is the easy answer, but not exactly sure how to do that and win yet.” John sighed. “I fought both to a standstill and only got out of it alive and free because of what feels like a technicality.”

Aaron looked concerned. “Are they going to come back for you?”

John nodded. “I’d be shocked if they didn’t. I’ve got a few ideas for round two. If it’s all the same to you though, I’m bloody exhausted. Think we can pick this up in the morning.”

“We’re good, let me know if you need anything. Looking forward to see what you and Alice get done planning your nuptials.”

John got up and headed into the main building. Alice and her mother were talking about four sites she wanted to show the couple. They agreed to starting first thing after breakfast in the morning. For now, the couple wanted to call it a night and get some rest.

Wednesday. 10:00 West Hills Baptist Church

“We have seating for one hundred seventy-five people. There’s two childcare rooms for the little ones if they get upset here as well.” Pastor Mark said.

“It’s the right size for what we want.” John said as he walked down the left isle. “Gorgeous stained-glass windows here too.”

“I love it, but the question I have is what days are available this summer?” Alice asked the pastor.

“Members of the church do get priority during scheduling, but the summer tends to be our slowest time for weddings. Engagement announcements typically happen then for the congregation.” The pastor smiled.

“Spring term ends second week of May. Third week of June work?” John was looking at Kate and Alice. “Presuming of course it’s open that weekend.”

“We are free on Saturday the seventeenth.”

“I think we have our date locked down.” Alice was barely containing her excitement.

“Oh, I am so happy for you two.” Kate was also beaming with excitement for her daughter.

“I’ll lock in the date and have the secretary send you the contract along with the deposit amount.” Pastor Mark said.

“What’s the full price? I’ll wire you the money now to take care of that.”

The pastor was taken aback by John. Most couples weren’t usually ready to pay for the full amount this far ahead of time. He excused himself a moment and went to the office to get that information for the couple. He came back to the three to witness a funny argument between Kate and John arguing over who was going to pay for what.

“I suspect this is one of those cases that I am stuck being an unstoppable force and an immoveable object.” Pastor Mark chuckled.

“The ceremony is on me; the reception is on you. How’s that for a compromise?” John smiled.

Alice started laughing. “You offered to pay for the less expensive one you know.”

John turned and shushed Alice a couple times. Eliciting an annoyed laugh from her directed at him.

“I noticed that too, but I think this is acceptable.” Kate was smiling.

“Excellent, well in that case here is the information you were asking for John.”

John took the card and opened his tablet. He logged into one of his financial institutions. A wire for the full rental amount was sent out. A few minutes later confirmation was received that it had been sent and received by the church. Pastor Mark thanked them and said he looked forward to working with the couple and family on their joyous day.

The three went off and looked at a few reception venues. This was the more contentious thing that they had to do. The reception size hadn’t really been determined yet. John figured that the vast majority of attendees would be connected to the Robertson’s via their business. He had wanted a rough number on how many would be there.

The problem with such a demand is that high society weddings, which this very much was, tended to be oversized affairs more for the families rather than the couples themselves. That annoyed both Alice and John but neither seemed able or willing to really fight that. In the end they decided on two venues. The dinner reception would be limited to three hundred people and be those people that were closest to the couple. The general reception and dance would be held at across the street at another venue that could hold over two thousand people.

16:00 Japanese Garden, Robertson Estate

John sat cross legged on the yoga mat in front of the sand garden. He was playing back the fight between the twins. Radiating off of him was raw psychic power. John ran simulation after simulation of the fight through his mind. There was no situation he ran through his mind where he killed both. Were he to kill one, the other twin would rage out of control.

Alice interrupted him as she sat down on the stone stool behind him. “What was that device you added to the power armor?” She seemed undisturbed by the psychic energy radiating off her fiancé.

“It siphons some energy from me and routes it back through the suit to enhance its capabilities.”

“So, you robbed Peter to pay Paul?”

John spun around and laughed at the comment. “You aren’t entirely wrong.”

“Were you trying to figure out how to win?”

“Yes.” John had a dejected look on his face.

“Looks like that didn’t go the way you wanted.” Alice was growing concerned.

John leaned back and looked at the blue sky. “I’m stronger individually than either one of them. But their shared sensory ability makes them far stronger than I’m capable of handling.”

“What if…”

“No, you all would die. I appreciate the offer of assistance, but if we come across them again you must run away.”

“But John, we can help you fight.”

John stood up and walked over to Alice, he kneeled down and touched her forehead. He transferred his memory of the fight. Tears began streaming down Alice’s cheeks.

“Alice, I love you. There are fights that I will need you and our friends with me to win. I say this not because I doubt you or our friends’ capabilities and willingness to fight. These two would cut through every last one of you without breaking a sweat. This is not a fight you can help up close, at this time anyways.”

“How are they that powerful? I thought you said the Confederacy rounds up people like them.”

“They do, but they aren’t from the Confederacy. We’re not sure where they are from, but they work for someone in the Mercantilist Union.”

John turned around and sat back down on the yoga mat and began to close his eyes. “If you want to help, I can bring you along with me into the simulation.”

“Yes.” Alice said eagerly as she sat down on the ground resting against the stool.

Energy began radiating off John. Alice closed her eyes and when they reopened, she was in the office building as the fight was going on. It was as if she was a noncorporeal entity floating around. She sat and observed, made mental notes about what to talk about. Little did she know everything she flagged John was instantly made aware of, this was his mind after all.

Alice was amazed at how the fight unwound. She noticed something that John hadn’t, the hood may have given the suit additional abilities, but it reduced his overall psychic effectiveness. His reaction times and strength were both reduced based on the power draw of the hood. If that could be adjusted or additional power was given to the suit from elsewhere, it may be enough.

When the simulation ended John stood up and flattened the sand garden with his mind. He began drawing the lines back into the sand as Alice stood up and hugged him from behind.

“You had some good ideas in there.” John smiled.

Alice let go of the hug and walked over to his side and watched the sand be raked into position once more. “I want that psychotic bitches head myself.”

“Unless we can find out some way to make you anathema to her, I doubt you’re going to get that chance.”

“If the two of you would have kids, would they be more powerful?” Alice looked disgusted asking that question.

“There appears to be more evidence that suggests psychic capabilities are not conferred to children of psychics. It appears to be random happenstance regarding who does or doesn’t get born with those abilities.”

“Ok, so then why does the grading scale fail so horribly for you lot? That doesn’t seem to make sense.”

“Easiest answer is that there aren’t many of us that buck the rules in comparison to the rest. So, it’s easier to build a grading scale that accounts for everyone except the exceptional cases. A grimmer view on it is the Confederacy is purposefully training it’s psychics to be neutered in power.”

The couple walked back to Alice’s mansion after John finished raking the garden with his mind. Dinner was still a couple hours away. They sat down on the couch; Alice grabbed the remote first, so they were watching what she wanted too. John brought out his tablet and was working on modifications to a psychic power armor suit.

The proposed suit used cutting edge technology, even more so than the suit that Join exploded. Armor plates were using a new alloy that the military was keeping secret. That would reduce the weight on the armor, make it more mobile and give it even more protection against enemy attacks. It would also cost nearly eighty-six times more expensive as well. Since this was a prototype and Intelligence likely had the budget cost wasn’t much of an issue anyways.

A pair of ultra-portable fusion reactors would be used to power the suit. A kinetic barrier system would also be included in its protective suite. The psychic hood would no longer be used to siphon psychic power and turn it into energy. Instead, its sole purpose is to enhance and sharpen the users’ psychic capabilities.

The end result was a much sleeker looking suit of power armor. It did a better job at protecting the user than the current Mark 6 power armor. It also had a massive amount of power available to use and places for two additional enhancement modules that could be switched out dynamically to account for the mission profile.

The rest of the day came and went without drama or issue. More progress was made with the wedding planning. John freely admitted that planning weddings was absolutely no fun at all. Alice just rolled her eyes at him. They agreed that they’d put off working on the rest of the wedding details until Christmas break. There weren’t that many details left, but the couple was feeling much more comfortable and felt the marriage itself was that much closer to happening.

19:00 Alice’s Living Room

“It’s certainly an interesting design John.” Director LeCroix was very impressed. “Damn costly though.”

“Wouldn’t hurt to have two or three. Can I get one by Monday?”

“That’s a tall ask, but I’ll see what we can do. Why the rush?”

“I’d like to debug the thing before it has to be used in anger.” A frown was forming across John’s brow.

“Understood, we’ll get one made as quickly as possible.”

The call ended. John slumped back into the couch and closed his eyes. He took a deep breath. When he opened his eyes, Alice was there smiling at him, she leaned down and kissed him. She walked around the couch and cuddled in next to him.

“Something’s bugging me.”

“What’s that?”

“It feels like you’re preparing and willing to fight an unwinnable fight. Are you sure we can’t help?”

John smiled. “Until we can find some way to neuter their abilities, I’m going to have to be the one to go after them. Short of us acquiring a tactical nuke or getting a battleship to fire from orbit.”

“I’m going to ignore those last two items. So, is there any substance that reduces the effective of abilities?”

“Rumors have always been out there, but nothing has ever been confirmed, at least from what I know. From experience I can tell you I’ve never run into something that affects me.”

“So, with the Navy knowing you’re a telekinetic does that change things?”

John shot an evil grin toward Alice. “They know I’m telepath of immense power, but nothing more than that. They think I relied on the power armor to cause all that damage and withstand their attacks. Which did help by the way.”

“You are a sneaky bastard.”

Alice continued to pepper John with questions about how they could help. Long range sniping seemed to be the only thing John would be willing to entertain. John finally agreed he wasn’t going to be able to keep them away from all fights, but he would at least try to think up of new ways for them to help. He said that the standing orders of runaway still applied to the twins until they knew how to mitigate their abilities.

The rest of Thanksgiving vacation was quiet and relaxing. Some odds and ends relating to the wedding were taken care of. Alice and John had an enjoyable Thanksgiving meal with her parents and Paul. Her other brothers were deployed and couldn’t be home.

John opted to get a workout in on Friday morning instead of going out shopping. Intelligence let him know the armor plates were built and incorporated into a suit already. The psychic amplifier was a bit more trouble. He responded to that email to send what they had, and he’d figure it out on the fly.

John continued to practice and playback the fight at the Zen Garden. Progress was slow to be made, but the progress that was made seemed to be helpful. At the very least there was some hope that the fight could be made, that was something that as early as the morning hadn’t existed.

The couple flew back to the academy Saturday morning. True to form John’s bag was last to show up. Alice was absolutely convinced this was the universe’s way of settling some sort of karmic imbalance that John causes in his day-to-day activities. John on the other hand clung to the belief that there’s a conspiracy theory working against him.