We stopped the autocar about a mile away from the ranch.

“Can you recon from here?” I asked Anne.

“The bots should be able to reach,” she replied. “Resolution’s going to be a bit fuzzy, though. Signal degrades with distance.”

“The closer we get the more likely we get interrupted.”

“Good point. I’ll try from here.” She opened the Jar.

According to Observe, the ‘Jar’ was labelled ‘Nanobot Storage and Transportation Carrier’. Fitting since it stored Anne’s portable stock of nanobots, but a bit of a mouthful. We had both agreed to call it the ‘Jar’ instead.

As Anne opened the lid, the swarm diffused out as a hazy cloud of tiny particles.

“Nanobots ready,” she announced. “Deploying from the Jar.”

“How long to reach?”

“About fifteen minutes.” The cloud diffused out of the window and began to float in the general direction of the ranch.

I kept scanning the horizon, just in case we ran into a patrol. Not that the ranch would have people patrolling this far out - it was unlikely - but we had planned for the possibility. Which was why I had my armour in the back seat, and the laser rifle handy.

If it came to a fight, I could be armoured in seconds and deployed moments later. Anne would take the car and retreat, then grab her own armour and play backup. At least that’s what I’d told her - in truth, I’d quietly programmed the car to just run away.

Call me overprotective, but I didn’t want my little sister in harm’s way.

In the meantime, we had burgers.

About fifteen minutes and three McWhoppers later, Anne spoke up. "There's some kind of shimmer. Looks like a haze between us and the ranch."

"What can you see?".

"Looks like a normal farm from this side…. Oh wow. I sent some nanobots through and the view changed."

"How?"

"The ones outside see a normal farm. The ones inside the shimmer see barbed wire fencing."

"That’s what inventors call a masking field, right?”

“Yeah, people outside see something different from what’s inside. Everything appears quiet there - I'm sending nanobots through the gate."

"Carefully."

"Carefully, aye. Nanobots are getting past the gate now.”

“Guards?”

“One at the gate. Looks like a normal security guard, but he’s got a rifle hidden away. Security cameras everywhere... Electric fencing.”

“That’s overkill for a ranch.”

“That’s not all. There’s… guard towers? Yeah, there’s towers and guards with guns in them.”

“Normal guns?”

“Looks like it. Huh. There’s a second set of fences inside the first. Barbed wire on top.”

“That doesn’t sound like a ranch. More like a prison.”

“I’m getting that kind of vibe. Oh, there’s a driveway. And a mansion. There’s walls around the mansion, shrubbery and trees…. I see a battlesuit.”

“What type?”

“The ones you call the Soldier class, I think? The same ones as the fighting pit.”

“Anything else?”

“Uhh…. there’s two battlesuits here. Just in the shrubbery. They’re chatting about something.”

“That’s more security than the fighting pits.”

“Whatever it is, it’s probably big. I’m sending the nanobots further in.”

“Don’t get too close to the suits. We don’t know what sensor capabilities they have.”

“I know. Bypassing carefully.” She frowned. “Infrared sensors and motion detectors in the shrubbery. This place is seriously secured.”

“Go on.”

“Passing by… now we’re in a garden. Nice one, too. Huh…. there’s a girl.”

“A girl?”

“Yeah, she’s chatting with a guy.”

“Anything of interest?”

“Umm…” Anne blushed. “Let’s just say you’d never catch me wearing anything that revealing.”

“Okay. And the guy?”

“That’s the weird thing. He’s, like, really old. Forty, fifty, maybe.”

“That’s not that old, but okay. So a May-December romance.” I frowned. “Seems a bit out of place.”

“Considering where we are? Yeah. Anyway, I’ll get closer to the mansion. Whatever it is, it’ll be in there.”

The next few minutes went quietly, until Anne spoke up again. “Big, well-manicured garden. Pretty flower bushes… Huh. There’s a pool, too. Oh, and lots more girls.”

“Girls or women?”

“Too far to tell. I can get closer and check.”

“Keep going.”

“Okay, I’m closing in… huh. So there’s a bunch of guys there too, and lots of girls… Weird.”

“So it’s a pool party going on?”

“I’d say yes, but there’s something… off.”

“Off?”

“Yeah. Hey - a party usually has, like, kids of the same age group, right?”

“Adult parties sometimes have a mix of age groups.”

“Yeah, but this is different.”

“Different how?”

“All the girls are young-ish. Teens, twenties. All the guys are older - fifties, some in their forties.”

“Some of the girls are teens? Are you sure?”

“Maybe a couple of years older than me. At least a few. Some are older.” She made a face. “Eww.”

“What?”

“One of the guys just walked over to a girl and started …. pawing her.”

“That’s not right.”

“And now she’s walking off with him…. I don’t get this.”

“I’m not sure you should be seeing this.”

“Hey, I have sex ed in school, I’m not dumb. This is just…. weird, that’s all.”

“I agree. All the girls are young and all the guys are older?”

“Yep. There’s maybe one guy who looks like in his thirties. And… eww, now one guy’s undoing that girl’s bikini. In public.”

“You really shouldn’t be watching this stuff.”

“And are you going to be running the nanobots? No, you’re stuck with me for recon duty.”

“Anything else going on apart from the weird sex party?”

“I’m moving the nanobots into the mansion.”

“Hopefully it’ll be more PG-13.”

“Yeah, I think that would be good…. Going through the door. Lots of paintings… and not PG-13 ones.”

“Adult paintings?”

“Lewd paintings. The kind of stuff Miss Burroughs hands out suspensions for.” She smirked. “Well, some of them are photographs. Full body photographs. Huh.”

“Is this the Grunter version of the Playboy mansion?” I wondered aloud.

“What’s the Playboy mansion?”

“.... never mind. Just keep looking. There’s got to be something that justifies the security.”

“.... and we’ve got stairs. Going up now. Umm. There’s more battlesuits here. All over the place.”

“How many?”

“Six that I count. One larger one.”

That made eight battlesuits in total. “What’s on the upper floors?”

“Rooms. Lots of rooms….. Most are locked though. There’s one open, I’m peeking through…. Eww, bad idea.”

“What?”

“That was definitely not PG-13.”

“I’m pulling you out.”

“No you’re not. We need to know what's the deal with this place, remember? …. Okay, we have multiple doors, locked, on the first floor. Windows have bars…. Second floor. Same situation, lots of locked doors… There's one extra-large bedroom on the floor which is pretty lavish. That's unlocked. But the rest of the rooms are locked."

"Can you peek into one of the locked rooms?"

"The nanobots should fit under the door….. Trying it now." A minute passed. "Well, they went through, but this one's empty. Trying another….. Empty again. Doesn't look like they have much…. oh that's weird."

"Hmm?"

"There's chains on the bed."

“Chains?"

"There's a four poster bed and a bunch of chains tied to it…. I'm trying the next room. Empty again, but more chains on the bed…. Next room, oh this room has someone…" Anne's face paled.

"You okay?" I asked.

"There's a girl chained up."

"What?"

"The chains on the beds. This room - there's a girl chained to them in it." She turned to me. "I don't have a good feeling about this place."

I nodded in agreement. "Get your bots out. Quietly. We've seen enough."

"Getting the bots out. Andrew - what is this place?"

I swallowed. The pieces had begun to fit together in my mind, but I hadn't wanted to be right. "It's a prison."

"A …. prison? For those girls?"

"Unfortunately, yes. It looks like the Grunters have set up their own whorehouse."

"But… that makes no sense. Why would any girls…." She blanched. "They're not there by choice, are they?"

"Probably not. Hence the guards. And the chains."

"This is like some…. some nightmare. How come they haven't been stopped?"

"That's why the eight battlesuits," I replied. "Secrecy…. not too many people know what the ranch does …. and firepower. And if Mayor Aldiss is any indication, contacts too."

"This is America, Andrew. They can't just…. run a place like this here."

"I'm willing to bet it's got all the technological protections you can think of. The camouflage we saw. Anti-satellite blockers. Drone detection systems. The guards may be ex-military. And the firepower to back it up, if it comes to that." I sighed. "Are there basements?"

"Yeah…"

"If your bots haven't left the mansion yet, take a quick look down there."

"I'm not going to like what I find, am I?"

"Maybe. If the prisoners are upstairs, it's likely that the supplies and weapons are stashed downstairs."

"I'll check. Nanobots going into the basement….. huh. More battlesuits, these are in storage."

"Storage?"

"They're on racks. There's guards with guns here - lasers but no suits on. Oh, there's one guy in a battlesuit too."

"So downstairs is storage," I muttered.

"There's also a room full of screens and electronic stuff…. Huh. They've got two guys watching cameras."

"Video surveillance. I’d bet on inventech stuff, since Grumman is involved."

"Think this is his main base?"

"I'd be surprised if it wasn't," I replied. "Too much by way of defence. Nine suits plus reserves in storage plus armed guards."

"And the …. girls?"

I winced. "Probably how the Grunters keep themselves entertained."

"Entertained. They're chained up in there, Andrew."

"I know. It's evil." I took a deep breath. "Supervillains."

"Supervillains," Anne sighed. "What are we going to do?"

"For now, we're going to go home. We're going to plan. And in a few days’ time, I'm going to come back, rescue the girls, and burn this place to the ground."

"I'm coming too."

"You stay far away. Use your drones to watch."

"No, I want to fight."

"Anne…. I can't take you into a firefight."

"Andrew, they've got girls chained up in there. Do you understand what that means? I can't stand by quietly and let you do all the work."

"You're fifteen."

"I'm an ultra. I can be a superhero and stand between, or I can be a coward and stand aside. What do you think?"

QUEST ALERT! GUIDE ANNE DRAKE THROUGH HER FIRST BATTLE.

REWARD: +500 XP, +500 XP TO ANNE DRAKE.

REFUSE: ANNE SNEAKS OUT AND FOLLOWS YOU ANYWAY. -50 DAYS TO DISCOVERY.

BONUS REWARD: FOR EACH HOSTAGE RESCUED ON THE MISSION, +50 XP TO EACH PARTICIPANT, +3 ETHICS. FOR EACH ENEMY COMBATANT KILLED, -1 ETHICS.

I sighed. "If we're doing this, then you have to follow my instructions precisely. No arguing, no backtalk in the middle of the mission. You understand?"

".... You're saying yes?"

"If I don't, you'll sneak out and follow me anyway, won't you?"

Anne glared. "Maybe."

"I'm serious, Anne. You want to be part of this? Fine, but you have to follow orders. Like a soldier. And that means you do exactly what I say."

"Okay, but I'm not leaving you to die or something."

"Anne, you're level one. I'm level five. If I tell you to run, it's because I'm worried about your safety, not mine."

"And if you get swarmed by, say, a dozen battlesuits?"

"Then I cut loose. I took one fuel bomb with me last time. This time, if I'm surrounded? I'll take six."

"Huh.” A speculative look passed across Anne’s face. “That would probably do the trick."

"Which is why I want you away from the area. When you're close by? I can't really go all out. If I'm free to act, I can let loose."

"What about the girls?"

"That's where you'll come in. You'll use the nanobots to keep me from being surprised. And if I do get into a big, public fight with nine Grunters in power armour? Then you use the nanobots to guide the girls out to safety."

"... How? My bots are too small for that."

"That's why we're going to prepare."

Two days later, I put the finishing touches on my newest weapon.

ADVANCED BATTLEHAMMER MARK ONE

DESIGNED FOR COMBAT INSTEAD OF CONSTRUCTION, THIS WEAPON IS CONSTRUCTED WITH NANOFIBER HANDLES TO LIGHTEN THE WEIGHT AND A FULLERSTEEL HEAD TO DRIVE HOME THE IMPACT.

REQUIREMENTS: MECHANIC LEVEL 15, STR 18.

COST: 3 KG FULLERSTEEL + 50 SQ. M. NANOFIBRE WEAVE + 400 MP.

DAMAGE: 40 + 1.5 X STR.

I hefted the hammer. It was light, flexible, and weighed only four kilos… much lighter than the earlier one.

It also hit harder. With my strength and the blunt weapons bonus, a single blow would deliver 80 damage. A critical hit would rake 160 points off an enemy, and a Deadly Blow would destroy even a Grunter Lieutenant in a single strike.

Such was the power of high-tech materials.

My continued experimentation had raised Chemist to Level Six, which let me make fullerite - the key ingredient of Fullersteel.

The first chemists in human history were probably a bunch of brickmakers around 3500 BC, who heated copper and tin in a furnace to make bronze. This triggered a revolution so significant that we name the era the Bronze Age. Ploughs, tools, and weapons forged of bronze changed the fate of nations and the course of history.

Armies seeking better weaponry drove the advancement of chemistry, leading to the Iron Age in 1200 BC, and eventually the armies of Greece and Rome.

My first few levels in Chemist had, indeed, taught me to forge better weapons and materials for them - mirroring the journey of history. Fullerite was at least as much of an advancement over nanofibre weave as iron weapons were over bronze. The fullerite molecule was based on fullerene - a carbon molecule with sixty atoms linked together in the shape of a football. Fullerite could be produced industrially by compressing fullerene under very high pressures - in small quantities. The variant I synthesized was harder than diamond and stronger by far than titanium alloyed steel.

Fullersteel took the same properties one level further, weaving iron atoms within the carbon footballs and increasing the compressive strength by an order of magnitude.

I could understand why Grumman made armour out of it.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t - yet.

The best I could do was make weapons. The Advanced Battlehammer was just the tip of the iceberg.

Speaking of tips…

Small quantities of fullersteel could be used to create a spear or javelin tip. A javelin made entirely of fullersteel would pack an amazing impact - 200 damage in a single hit. It would also be insanely expensive and cost me 700 MP to forge.

FULLERSTEEL JAVELIN: +200 DAMAGE, 4 KG FULLERSTEEL + 700 MP.

Still, there were cheaper alternatives. The Roman legions had used a light spear called the pilum - about six feet long, made of wood and iron. These were meant to be used either in one-on-one combat or to be thrown, and had helped the average five-foot-tall Roman legionary cut down charging masses of seven-foot-tall barbarian warriors.

A pilum made of nanofibre weave with a fullersteel tip was well within the abilities of Mechanic Level 15.

FULLERSTEEL PILUM: +80 DAMAGE, 0.3 KG FULLERSTEEL + 10 SQ. M. NANOFIBRE WEAVE + 250 MP.

Each Fullersteel pilum weighed less than a kilo. Combined with Javelin Strike, I could use them to shave 320 armour off an enemy from range before closing in for the kill.

I made twenty.

But there was more to chemistry - and the Chemist skill - than just forging weapons.

The second leg of chemistry, that drove its development through five thousand years of human history, was medicine. Apothecaries had mixed herbs and unguents together for a thousand years before the rise of Rome, and their arts have developed into the modern science of pharmacology.

Performance enhancing drugs, mind altering chemicals, painkillers…. All came out of chemistry. And so it was no surprise to me when Chemist Level Six opened up a vista of chemical formulations that would help me in battle.

The Hypercaffeine Serum had been the first to show me what was possible. Level Six gave me blueprints for four more serums:

ADRENALINE SERUM

COST: ETHANOL + SUGAR + MULTIVITAMINS + PROTEIN POWDER + 25 MP

RESTORES 100 AP ON USE

WEIGHTLIFTER'S BOON

COST: PROTEIN POWDER + MULTIVITAMINS + STEROIDS + 150 MP

BOOSTS CARRY CAPACITY BY 100% FOR 1 HOUR

RESTORATION SERUM

COST: STEROIDS + MULTIVITAMINS + PROTEIN POWDER + 150 MP

RESTORES 50 HP ON USE (NO EFFECT ON ARMOR)

JOLT SERUM

COST: METHAMPHETAMINE + PROTEIN POWDER + MULTIVITAMINS + 150 MP

RESTORES 200 MP ON USE

An easy way to get back my points in mid-battle. Of course, one could hardly stop mid-blow and take a swig, but it might help while taking cover.

My rising skills in Mechanic and Chemist also gave me another useful twist to the Laser Rifle:

LASER SNIPER RIFLE

+50 DAMAGE. CAN BE USED WITH SNIPER SHOT SKILL. ALLOWS TARGETING OF WEAK POINTS FOR ADDITIONAL DAMAGE. FIRE RATE: 1 PER 8 SECONDS.

Where the Standard Laser Rifle was short and stubby, and the Heavy variant favoured by Grunter Captains was squat and bulky, the Laser Sniper Rifle was long, slender and light. It was the perfect weapon for someone to strike at an enemy from afar.

Which meant it was the weapon that I handed over to Anne.

Anne eyed the rifle dubiously. “It doesn’t look like much.”

“You wanted a laser rifle,” I pointed out. “You said you needed a laser rifle. It’s a laser rifle.”

“..... Doesn’t it require Sniper Shot as a skill? Like, a skill you have and I don’t?”

“I have one for me, too. And you can use it without the skill. More importantly, it’s got an Aim Assist module.” I pointed to the fixture on top of the rifle. “It’ll tell you when your target is centred so you can fire.”

“Humph. Not what I wanted.”

It was time to change the topic. “How’re your nanobots?”

“I’ve got enough of the sensor types. Visual, audio and infrared.”

“You figured out infrared? Awesome.”

“Now they can guide you by night as well. Thirty thousand sensor nanobots ready for use.” She frowned. “I’m still not able to get combat nanobots right, though.”

“I thought you were going to go with laser-equipped ones?”

Anne glared. “You said, and I quote, nanobot lasers wouldn’t be powerful enough to make a difference.”

I threw up my hands. “You wanted to try, I gave you my opinion.”

“Well, you were right. The ones with lasers can just about draw a line on paper.”

“That’s impressive for something that small.”

“That’s about as powerful as ink.”

“You could replace laser printers. It’s a highly lucrative industry.”

“Honestly, Andrew, no-one prints anymore. Not the point, either. The combat nanobots need something with a bit more punch.” She looked at me expectantly. “I was thinking you could help me create, say, small bombs to go into the nanobot heads.”

“Uhh…. what’re you planning?”

“Nanobots enter inside the Grunter’s armour and then blow up.”

I winced. “Kamikaze nanobots?”

“Yeah. I can make them. So, help me with an explosive warhead.”

“Your mass limit is one microgram, right? It’s not going to work.”

Anne frowned. “Why not?”

“Well… consider an explosive like TNT. One gram of TNT has about four point two kilojoules of energy, which is slightly less than a .30 bullet. Got it?”

“Understood….”

“Your nanobots can weigh, at maximum, one microgram. Let’s say ten percent of that is the warhead. So to get the power of a single bullet, you’d need …. Twelve million nanobots.”

“... twelve million? That’s too much! I can’t control twelve million nanobots. … I can’t even make twelve million nanobots.” Anne huffed. “There’s got to be an easier way.”

“Unfortunately not.”

“Can’t we use a better explosive? I mean, there’s got to be better options than TNT, right?” She looked at me hopefully. “I read about some.”

“Like what?”

“Well, there’s this stuff called antimatter. You take a proton and an antiproton, and when they meet they both explode. Perfect energy conversion.”

“Two problems with that.”

“What?”

“One, I don’t know how to make antimatter. Two, antimatter, fusion and fission warheads are technically nuclear weapons. I’m not giving you nukes.”

“That’s sort of unfair.”

“Know any other fifteen-year-olds whose brothers give them weapons of mass destruction?”

“Good brothers share their stuff with their little sisters.”

“I already gave you a laser rifle.”

“I’m just saying, you should think about what to get me for my birthday.”

“How about we save the NBC weaponry for when we’re actually fighting aliens?”

“Deal.”

… had I just committed to giving my fifteen-year-old sister nukes? “Ah, there are conditions….”

“No backsliding. By the way, there’s something you should see. I’m sending you a link.”

I opened the video on my phone.

“.... in a controversial decision, the Government of Nigeria has awarded the Order of the Niger to the ultrahuman Grumman. Grumman, who has a reputation in the United States as a villain, has been in Lagos for the last few weeks aiding in reconstruction and police actions……”

My eyebrows went up. “They gave a supervillain an award?”

“The President of Nigeria issued a statement thanking Grumman for his services,” said Anne. “They say he’s been most helpful in maintaining civil order. Whatever that means.”

“It means he’s been putting down riots. Probably with firepower…. Don’t they have to pay him?”

“They’re doing that too.” She shrugged. “The U.S. isn’t too happy about it, but nothing much we can do.”

I quickly ran a search. There was a press conference by the State Department scheduled…. “Turn on the TV.”

We tuned in to the news to see a Department of State spokesperson fielding questions.

“Mr. Bowers, Trish Carell from MSNBC. Was any warning given to the U.S. Government about this decision?”

“Ms. Carell, awards given by foreign governments to U.S. citizens are entirely their prerogative, and we have not been approached in advance of this decision…”

“Mr. Bowers, Luke Frentiss from CNN. What will the State Department’s response to the action of the Nigerian government be?”

“As I said earlier, Luke, we have no specific actions planned at this time….”

I paused the stream.

“It’s nice to know,” muttered Anne bitterly, “that you can shoot up police stations in one country and be hailed as a national hero in another.”

I nodded thoughtfully. “Anne, the girls you saw. Any particular ethnicity?”

“No, they were a mixed bunch….” Anne’s eyes widened. “Oh. Oh!”

“A villain goes to a city in riots and chaos,” I murmured, “after an alien attack. Lots of missing people. Lots of desperate people. He helps the police to quell riots with his heavily armed battlesuits.

“Side by side, he establishes links with the local gangs. And smuggles out some of the poor and the desperate, for his own purposes.” I took a deep breath. “Has them sent to his secret base, guarded by a shield that masks it from the outside world. Has them…. enslaved.

“And since they’re foreigners, no missing persons reports filed locally, no police search for them….”

“That’s… evil,” whispered Anne. “Diabolical.”

“Trafficking. Running a prison camp. A secret base filled with armed and armoured mercenaries. A drug trade. Everything you can expect of a supervillain. I’m guessing Lagos isn’t the first city he’s helped out like this. And….” I pointed to the screen. “He’s in Nigeria right now, getting an award. Do you know what that means?”

“That Nigerian politicians are crooks?” asked Anne.

“That he’s not here, right now, to defend his base.”

Anne’s jaw dropped. “You mean….”

“Tonight, Anne. We hit them tonight.”

“I’m ready. What do we need to do?”

“First, I need you to help me steal a cellphone.”