෴WD40෴

෴Hex෴

෴Darby O’Cellan෴

෴Wilson Meyers෴

෴Jim 'Blink' Thorpe෴

wat෴෴෴෴෴෴

The Death and Life of Hex Six

෴෴෴෴෴෴

Blink looked down at the closed up, abandoned commercial building from the run-down apartment building rooftop across the street from the second target. He picked up a small device from the roof and disappeared. An instant later he popped into being a few feet away from the team on the ground. “Bad news folks. No power, no comms, lots of seismic.”

The body language of the entry team changed. Suddenly everyone had somewhere else to look to avoid making eye contact with any of the Hex aspects. She’d volunteered to run point. Everyone there knew what seismic only meant.

Hex Five adjusted her ballistic black mask with a hexagon spray painted across the face. She dropped her rifle’s magazine and slid a new one in. “Switching to alternating armor-piercing and thermite rifle rounds. Six will stay with tungsten flechettes in the shotgun.” Hex Four said into the radio in an even tone.

“Well, fuck,” Hex Two said to herselves.

“Run point I said,” Hex Five whispered as she moved to the next point of cover.

“It’ll be fun I said,” Hex Six muttered, moving to cover her other self.

“All fun and games till a Chimera eats my face.” Hex Four rounded it out from the comms trailer.

Hex regretted this plan already. She couldn’t help feeling more invested in this contract than usual. Sure, the extra money was always nice, and building trust with her employer was vital. Just because dying isn’t permanent, doesn’t mean it’s not a terrible experience. Trying to take that last breath and failing was much worse than people thought. Her deepest hope was that she could finish this up and get back to normal days and quiet nights with her boyfriend.

Hex Six crept in closer to the main door ahead with her stubby tactical shotgun held at the ready. Hex Five covered her with a rifle that looked a little large on her petite frame. A sound of something large shifting in the dim rooms ahead of them.

Hex Two keyed her mic from the communications trailer. “Confirm something large and active inside. Do I proceed?”

Darby peeked around the door edge and then looked over at Wilson on the other side of the opening. They both carried battle rifles similar to the one carried by Hex Five. Wilson nodded and then moved in.

Darby hit his comms. “Hex, weapons free. Be advised Wilson and I are close behind. Also, contact our client, let him know the situation and then patch him into our comms. Let’s see if he’s as good as his word.”

“On it,“ Hex Three replied from the comm center.

A loud screeching, like metal scraping across stone echoed from the halls ahead of the two identical women. Both of them jumped a bit at this. The Hex aspects in the comm center didn’t react. Deep in the converted office space something was tearing through empty cubicles as though it had a terrifying vendetta against them. Another shriek of metal scraping on concrete split the air. Both women raised their weapons. Darby and Wilson came up behind them, being careful to maintain clear lines of fire in the narrow office corridor. They arrived at the end of the hall. The room opened up into a large open office space. It looked to be at least a few hundred feet long and perhaps half that wide. A few emergency lights still cast a dim glow into the room. Most of the room was concealed by deep shadows.

Something fast lashed out and hit the far wall with the sound of a file cutting metal, carving a deep furrow into the metal skinned masonry. The four in the front scanned over their firing arcs, looking for anything to target. It lashed the wall again. Whatever it was, moved faster than they could see and slashed another tear in the sheet metal across the wall. An office chair flew up at the ceiling and knocked out a dark fluorescent light fixture. A shower of sparks accompanied the file on metal sound and several of the remaining emergency lights went out.

“Well, shit,” Wilson whispered. “Weapon lights on.” He turned his on and was unsurprised to see Five and Six turn their weapon lights on in unison. Darby followed a second after with his light. Wilson’s eyes glowed a soft amber for an instant as he engaged his ability.

Hex Five kept her light trained where they’d last seen movement, while Hex Six scanned the surrounding darkness. Darby and Wilson picked darker spots and tried to light up as much of the area as possible.

“Shoulda brought flares.” Darby muttered.

“The client will be with you soon. He says he’s en route,” Hex two said

A male voice replied on the radio. “I’ll be with you in less than thirty seconds. Pull back your people till I arrive.”

Wilson left his mic off and spoke to the other three around him, “The client isn’t calling the shots. But don’t advance. We don’t know what this thing is capable of, and I don’t want to lose anyone else. Even you Hex.”

Hex Five smiled, “Why Wilson, I didn’t know you cared.”

Wilson grinned, “Who said anything about caring, I just don't want to have to pay out the—It’s coming!” His enhanced vision spotted movement deep in the shadows.

Hex Six had just swept her light past a spot that was clear. She swung the light back where Wilson’s light pointed. Two glinting reflective eyes coming at them fast. “Contact!”

A chimera the size of a small car rushed out of the shadows at the four. It had no visible ears or mouth, but resembled the furry tortured combination of a dog and a mole. It ran on short legs that seemed to have too many joints. Everything about it set them on edge—its writhing pink hairless rear appendages, the wiggly motion of its legs, the unusual nose on a mouthless face that seemed to move in ways that looked wrong and creepy, to its and screeching bark—all of it combined to create a terrifying visage that instinctively nauseated the four.

Hex Five and Six swiveled in unison toward the target. Darby’s hyper reactions got him on target and firing first, just before the two women opened fire. Wilson followed a split second later. The chimera grunted in irritation and then screeched in pain as it took several hits and leaped out of the hall into a nearby alcove.

“Did you see the nose on that thing? What the hell was it?” Hex Five blurted out.

Both women shifted to orient on an unseen target, “I sense movement from that side.” Hex Six whispered.

A shape moved in the shadows. All four of them opened fire just as a muscular pink cord whipped out of the darkness and wrapped around Hex Six’s neck. “Gurhk” was the only sound she made before being yanked off into the darkness. The remaining three opened fire, putting rounds downrange almost blindly. The flash and sound of two shots from the heavy shotgun came from around the corner. Darby and Wilson started to advance.

Hex Five raised her hand to call a halt. “Don’t bother. She’s already dead.” her tone cold with anger.

Hex Four came on the line. “Client on site. Also Wilson, that was terrible, and it's taking everything I’ve got to avoid pissing myself.”

Wilson’s face pinched in, lips pursed and eyes tight. He blinked hard once before returning to focus on the hallway. “I know.” His voice sounded anguished.

“Coming in.” Doktor Midnight said over the comms.

None of them turned away from the darkness ahead of them to look for him. A loud slurping and crunching sound was audible from down the hall.

Heavy footsteps approached them from behind. Darby looked over his shoulder and let out a relieved sigh at the sight of a tall black-clad man.

The deep black armor made a slight humming sound as it flowed like liquid over his body. “I see it.” Doktor Midnight said. Spikes and blades emerged from his knees, elbows, and fists. “Just around the corner out of sight. Hold this position, and I’ll go take care of it.”

The beam from Hex Five’s weapon light wavered. Hex Two came on the tactical net. “Something is wrong! It’s an attack on my brain! Something is trying to violate us mentally. Fingers in my head!”

All the aspects of Hex spoke as one. “We can’t stop it! Oh god. It knows. It knows everything! It sees me!” she shrieked.

Doktor Midnight exploded into motion. He dashed ahead in a blur. The chimera screeched as it became aware of an interloper approaching it during its meal. Midnight vanished from sight around the corner.

Another screech erupted. This one was cut short in a strangled gurgling sound. A loud hammering sound not unlike a metal on concrete power hammer reached them. Hex Five advanced, but before she’d made it even a few feet down the hall, the feeling of being deeply and forcibly examined to her core faded.

“Keep it together Hex, tell us what’s happening!” Wilson called out.

Hex Five shuddered as the after effects of the invasive feeling crawling through her body and mind slowly subsided, leaving a sort of sick vertigo behind. She advanced down the hall, hugging the left to see as far into the right-hand alcove as she could.

“Hold your position!” Wilson shouted to her. She ignored him.

She crept down the quiet hall until she spotted the man in matte black armor. Crouching next to what was left of Hex Six, his bare hand rested on the bloody forehead of the body. His gaze snapped over to her when she came into view. Seeing who it was, he nodded to her.

She couldn’t see his face, but felt sure he looked sad. “I guess you already know she’s gone.”

Hex Five just nodded in response. He lifted his hand from the corpse and the black on black armor flowed back over it. There was something in his other hand.

They stood and walked back toward the exit, stopping next to the two men. “Nothing else is alive in the building. Wilson, did you have any ideas there were so many groups working with chimeras around here?” he asked.

Wilson relaxed a bit at the news, but kept his rifle facing downrange. “No, I’m not exactly plugged into that network, whatever network is full of people is crazy enough to think you can work with something like those?”

Midnight held up the item he’d brought out with him. A bright glow emanated from a spot on his armor, lighting up the object in his hand; a strap with a small external receiver and several probes with bits of flesh and blood still clinging to them.

“Can’t say for sure, but I’ve seen similar things on other chimeras. To me, this looks like they were trying to train it.” Midnight turned the small device in his hand to show it to them.

He shook his head. “And every time, it goes bad. Idiots don’t know how fast a chimera gets smart and powerful. You can’t train something that wants to eat you once it gets stronger than you and smart enough to know it.”

“This level of chimera is new,” Wilson said.” We’ve been seeing more enhanced chimeras. Sure we still see plenty of the weaker ones you can just shoot and kill, but too many of them are getting too tough to risk the fight.” He looked away from the device and looked to the black metal face of his client. “And what’s this about them getting smarter?”

Hex Two whispered something in Darby’s personal comm channel.

Darby shared a glance with Hex Five and nodded slightly. “If they get stronger and smarter, how are we supposed to fight them? We have the best weapons for this sort of work you can get and they’re barely effective,” he said.

Wilson frowned at the interjection, but took a half step back and nodded at Doktor Midnight. “He’s right. I can’t be asking my people to risk themselves with tools that aren’t up to the job, not for any amount of money.”

Midnight sighed, “This isn’t the place for this discussion, but you’re right. Chimera frequency and size is a concern of mine. Either these facilities are making more and feeding them immense quantities of food, or they’re growing faster. For now, I’d recommend you get what you can here, then sanitize the site.”

He looked at Hex five, “Send me information on a meeting time later and we’ll all talk. I assume you saw my broadcast earlier. They butchered it as usual but one of those little independent news sources actually carried it in its entirety. That offer is as open to you as it is to everyone else.” He glanced at each of them in turn. “You should think about it. For now, I’ve got places to be.”

Midnight started to turn away, then paused to look at Wilson. “This search is taking too long. If you find any reliable new information, pass it along. If any of it pans out, I’ll be very pleased.”

Without waiting for a reply he walked out of the building and with a dull thud took to the air, disappearing into the afternoon sky.

෴෴෴ ෴෴෴ ෴෴෴

෴Hex෴

Later that night after the op had wrapped up, Hex Five vanished from Wilson’s office to appear across the city in an unmarked truck trailer that concealed the communications hub. She arrived in the trailer with herselves, an immeasurable fraction of a second later. The five similar but far from identical women closed their eyes and sat very still. Like nodes of a computer system, each of the Hex bodies contributed to the overall thought process.

Far away to the northwest, another aspect read a bedtime story to her children while listening to the background thought noise. If her kids noticed that she was a little distracted during the story, it was a familiar enough of a thing that none of them complained.

The five in the truck kept glancing at the empty seat as they ran scenarios in their heads. One of them broke away and focussed intently on an empty spot on the floor. The room cooled rapidly and a brief over pressure accompanied by a loud pop filled the silence as a naked woman appeared.

The new arrival shook her loose shoulder-length hair and opened a nearby box with the number 6 painted on it. She picked out an outfit and began to dress. Once her pants were on, she took her seat in the circle and absently pulled on a shirt as she became part of the group thought process. When finished, they all opened their eyes as one and shut down their comm terminals. Except for the driver, Hex One, each aspect of Hex vanished. The new Hex Six grabbed a hairband and whipped up a dirty ponytail before vanishing herself.

෴Doktor Midnight෴

෴Emily Strakowski෴

෴෴෴෴෴෴

Manifesto

෴෴෴෴෴෴

Doktor Midnight hovered above the busy city street. Several hundred feet above the streetlights, he wasn’t worried about being seen until he was ready to be seen.

He opened his mic. “Norns?”

“Awaiting orders sir.”

“Is that you Emily?”

“Yes! I’m still your main eye in the sky for today.” her perky tone showed how pleased she was to be recognized.

“Are the drones here?” he looked outward, trying vainly to spot tiny black on black machines against the night sky.

“Yes sir, the lookout and skywatch drones are in place, and the projector drone is ready to go. Do you want it aimed at that open space on the wall or did you have somewhere else in mind?” The sound of rapid keyboarding was audible over the commlink.

“That spot will do nicely. I’m going to head down and have a word with the crowd. Always nice to have a chance for a little PR. Turn the wifi drones on as soon as they’re in position.”

“The PA drones will be in position around you in about thirty seconds. Those big plate glass windows will make for excellent speakers for you. Wifi drones on now.” her voice filled with excitement.

Midnight controlled his flight power to treat the side of the building as a horizontal surface and walked down the side of the building. In range to be heard, he engaged the public address function and linked up with nearby drones.

“Sir?” Emily interjected. “Something you should know. That is a fantasy and science fiction themed convention down there. We’re seeing a whole lot of people dressed in various costumes, there’s even someone dressed like you down there.”

Midnight turned the PA mode back off and replied. “Yes, I’m well aware which convention this is. I lived here for a lot of years. As for the one dressed like me, well you know what they say about imitation.”

“Of course sir, I just wanted to mention it because with all the cosplay, the good news is they probably won't be alarmed, but the bad news is that they might not take you any more seriously than they would any other cosplay performance.”

“I appreciate the heads up. It's why I’m walking down the side of the building. I realize I’m going to have to prove myself a little to a crowd like this. But, a crowd like this is exactly the kind of people who might take a leap of faith and join the cause, so it's worth the extra effort. Turn the projector on with the standard contact info and subtitles in as many languages as we can. Starting in three.”

The projector drone came on, displaying a rotating set of methods to securely contact Doktor Midnight.

With PA mode enabled he stepped down into a better lit area of the side of the downtown highrise. “Good evening ladies and gentlemen.”

His amplified voice rang out into the street from numerous PA drones, clearly audible over the noise of the crowd without being very loud in any one spot. Heads turned, searching for the source that came from everywhere above them. FIrst one, then many onlookers spotted Doktor Midnight walking down the side of the building and pointed. Soon the crowd was looking up at him.

“I am here to tell you that you have been, you are being—” He paused for dramatic effect. “—lied to. The government and the media are hiding the truth about the fate of our world.”

With all eyes on him, he waved and continued. “You’ve been told that the risks of Catalyst treatments are extremely high. You’ve heard that most people who seek out a treatment end up dead or worse. I am here to tell you that gaining superhuman abilities does not have to be a high risk endeavor! Those of you interested in gaining abilities, you should know that the world needs your help.”

He lifted off from the building and hovered above the crowd.

“Catalyst treatments are being given the wrong way! You might know someone who was given a Catalyst treatment, and was damaged or hurt by the treatment. If those people are brought to my attention, I can help most of them!”

He turned and pointed to the large projected screen on the wall behind him displaying his words as subtitles below the methods to contact his organization. “Take pictures or video. I encourage you to record this and spread it. The world is in great danger, and only people just like you, that become the most enhanced versions of yourselves can save it. If you’re interested, contact me in one of these ways shown on the screen. Or you can connect to one of the wifi hotspots that have just come online. If you connect to one of the Midnight hotspots, you don’t have to do anything else, my people will be in touch.”

The people on the ground taking video or pictures watched in awe. Some checked wifi settings, and connected to the new hotspots hovering in the darkness above the street lights. Norns around the world executed scripts to gain enough information about each connecting phone to be able to contact the users later.

“If you doubt me, go to the local hospitals. Visit the facilities for those afflicted by what they ignorantly call ‘Catalyst Syndrome’. Don’t bother checking the news, it won't be there. Go to the wards themselves! See how I’ve emptied them out over the past few days. If you happen to know someone here who was suffering from this, they are either in recovery, or already discharged. Again, don’t look for the story of over a hundred people cured of what they tell you is a terminal condition overnight, you won’t find it. If you want to see the truth, go to those hospitals and see it for yourself.”

Emily spoke up. “Sorry to interrupt boss, but watchtower drones have detected enhanced humans attached to a military unit coming in. They aren’t showing on the lookout drones yet, but the helicopter is up on the skywatch units. It’s moving fast and could be there in less than a minute.”

Midnight sighed. He floated upwards away from the crowd. “I’m sorry to say, folks, that I’ve got to cut this address short. Agents of the government that’s been lying to you will be here very soon to try to stop my message from getting out. Record this information while you can, and contact us soon while those methods are still valid.”

He raised his voice, “Remember, the only future for humanity is with these abilities. Choose wisely.”

He flicked the PA mode off and accelerated straight up. “Ok Emily, give me a waypoint, where can I go to minimize collateral damage? Also give me a marker for where they are coming from. Oh, and keep the projector and wifi drones going as long as possible, but follow me with the PA drones.” The surrounding air whistled as he flew toward the glowing waypoint on his screen. Nearly invisible in the dark night sky, he turned toward the rapidly approaching helicopter and illuminated his armor. Tiny spots on the outside of his armor heated up and emitted a brilliant yellow light accompanied by smoke. He continued to shine light and smoke until he saw it turn away from the convention and head toward him. With a minor effort, his armor lit up like a small smoking star on the skyline as he descended into a large park.

On the ground, he sat down on a bench and watched the people exit the helicopter as his armor cooled. It was clear by watching them that only one of them had ever been in a helicopter before. Even the soldiers seemed inexperienced. As soon as they were all on the ground, the helicopter lifted off again. They milled around and got themselves settled. Midnight muttered to himself about amateurs as he stood up and let them approach.

He hit the comms mic, “Emily, Norns, keep an eye on the lookout and skywatch drones. But I want you mostly focussed on the antimissile and mortar watch. If they have me in one place for more than a few minutes, I expect they’ll try something, don’t let them catch me unaware.”