The First: EVO Uprising (31 page)

“
What I want you to take away from Pubudu’s story,” Sophia began to say without looking at her. “Is not the tragedy of his end, but his courage to take a stand at such a young age even in the face of such a horrible death. He could have shot his mother like other children did and lived, no one would have blamed him. He did not have any powers or abilities like we do, but he took a stand nonetheless. I honestly don’t think I would have had the guts to do what he did, especially at his age. How sad is it that people like Pubudu with no power have that type of courage, and people with real power don’t. We pick and choose fights to get into because it’s profitable or because someone attacked us in our backyard. We compromise with monsters because they’re the enemy of our enemy. I don’t know if anything I do these days makes any difference. What I do know, is I owe it to that kid to at least try.”

She walked away, following Maxine to get dressed. Rosann watched her leave, and then sat there contemplating the next steps of her own life.

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Within the men’s locker room her brother sat on a similar metal bench with the same transfixed stare she had before Sophia walked in on her.

Unknown even to himself, he had transformed into the metal composition of the bench. He sat crushing parts of it that he clutched in his grip. Oliver walked in on him dawning a face of concern.

“
Adrian. Adrian are you okay?” He walked up to him. “Adrian!”

“
Huh?” he woke up from his dazed looking up.

“
Dude, you okay?” You’re transformed and destroying the bench.”

Realizing what he was doing he released the bench and reverted back to his regular form.

“
You okay, man?” he pressed. “You want to talk?”

“
I’m… uh… fine.” He shook his head. “Just need a shower.”

“
You already took a shower. You came out before me.”

He sprung to his feet, adjusting his towel.

“
I’m going to take another one.” He looked everywhere but Oliver’s eyes. “I’ll see you in a while.”

Oliver stood there respecting his friend’s wish not to pry any further knowing he was not all right. None of them would ever be all right after what they had witnessed.

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Back at Erica’s lab, Rogers walked in still in his battle worn bodysuit as she sat in her chair studying a holographic analyses of Sophia.

“
Is that what I think it is?” asked Rogers.

“
A sub-atomic scan of Ms. Dennison,” Erica confirmed. “I got it while Maxine took the measurements for her uniform.”

“
Isn’t that kind of underhanded?” he asked with a semi disapproving tone.

“
Technically, I’ve been studying her from a far for a while,” she answered. “She leaves a bio signature every time she takes flight. This is just confirming my suspicions.”

“
What’s that?” he asked inquisitively.

“
Our girl runs on a form of bio nuclear energy,” she sighed. “Each one of her cells is outputting enough energy to light up New York City for a decade, maybe even more.”

“
All that from one bomb?” Abe stood mystified.

“
Nope,” she clarified, “the bomb was one of the catalysts transforming her into an energy feeder, the upper layer of her skin’s cell structure is similar to chloroplasts in plant life creating a form of photosynthesis, but at a much high rate, like a trillion times more. Physical contact with raw energy works just as well; she’s like an energy vampire. As I suspected, her immune system is monstrously second to none. Zero radiation emission, her blood is the closest thing to Red Mercury that I’ve ever seen.”

“
Packs the same amount of power without the fallout,” interjected Rogers.

“
The Padawan is learning,” smiled Lady Tech.

“
So her main power source is solar, nuclear, and electrical,” concluded Abe.

 “
Correction, her source of energy is anything within the thermal, electrical, electromagnetic, and nuclear family,” Erica corrected. “And she’s been packing on the calories for a good five years. I calculate she’s generating ten times the output of a blue star.”

“
Would it be stupid for me to ask how is that even possible?” Abe asked.

“
In this day and age, yeah,” Erica chuckled. “But for the scientific answer, why does a lioness hunt and eat wildebeest, zebras, buffalo, and warthogs?”

“
Because food is food in the animal kingdom,” Rogers answered.

“
Give the man a gold star,” Erica nodded.

“
What about our golden friend?” Rogers asked.

“
The Egyptian.” She shook her head bringing up his image. “No damn clue.”

“
He’s not a superhero?” Rogers furrowed his brows.

“
I can’t pull a video, news, or even YouTube footage of him from anywhere. I don’t even think he’s an EVO.”

“
Say what?” Abe moved in closer.

“
From what I can determine,” she explained, “the energy I picked up was not coming from him but the staff and the armor he wore.”

“
Maybe he’s a Promethean like you,” he deduced.

“
I would believe that, if this didn’t happen.” She smirked with a bit of nervousness and fascination in her voice. “In the couple of minutes we had before all hell broke loose again, Maxine tried an intensified scan of his armor and got this.”

A holographic wave file played as the audio system within the lab emitted a disturbing voice that did not seem human, speaking a language Rogers had never heard before.

“
What is that?” Rogers asked.

“
Breaking it down, each word comes from languages that have not been spoken in centuries. I’m picking up Ancient Egyptian, Sumerian, Akkadian, and Q’eqchi’. Maxine was able to lock onto where the sound originated from, which was the staff.”

“
The staff was talking?” Rogers tried to wrap his brain around what she was saying. “What did it say?”

“
End communication, or suffer the consequences,” she translated. “Maxine decided best to heed its warning.”

“
Who or what the hell are we dealing with?” he asked while staring at the visual of the Egyptian.

“
The only thing that I can wrap my brain around that comes even close to this is an Ancient Mesopotamian religion, that’s also been the discussion and wet dream of every UFO chaser and sci-fi conspiracy theorist.”

With a wave of her hand she threw up various pictures and texts for Rogers to see.

“
They’re called the Anunnaki,” she explained with a face of disbelief. “Some believe they are deities, others believe their an ancient race of aliens that came to Earth to study and intermingle with humans.”

“
You’re joking right?” Rogers narrowed his eyes. “Tell me you’re joking.”

“
Dude, I’ve got masters degrees out the wahzoo, and I deal in facts.” She turned to him. “The fact is the energies Mr. Dark and Golden was channeling and manipulating based on these readings are on a cosmic level. I’m talking 13.8 billion years old Big Bang theory level. We have ways to attempt to detect and study such energy, create theoretical models of it, but to harness and channel it, especially in such a small package? I can’t do that. I couldn’t even come up with a theory of how to do it either.”

They both wore looks of mirrored concern.

“
Miss,” interrupted Maxine, “I am escorting Ms. Dennison back to your lab in her new suit. We will be there in two minutes.”

With another swipe, Erica quickly closed out her screens as Maxine escorted Sophia back into her lab. The newly created two-piece outfit appeared as if it was second skin. Rogers, who usually kept a titanium military demeanor, bowed his head looking the other way so as not to appear as if he was ogling her.

Sophia also looked the other way, blushing. Erica glanced at one and then the other. She cracked a smile at the uncomfortability taking over the room.

“
I just remembered I have some work to do,” Rogers coughed, “we can continue our conversation later.”

He marched out of the room continuing not to make eye contact.

“
Ms. Dennison,” he respectfully acknowledged with a head nod before exiting.  

“
Congratulations.” Lady Tech clapped with a smile. “That’s the first time I’ve seen the Sergeant uncomfortable about anything since I’ve gotten to know him.”

“
Not as uncomfortable as I feel,” she stated while looking herself up and down again, while touching the fabric.

“
You don’t like?” Erica’s face turned to disappointment.

“
No I like it,” Sophia answered, “but it feels like I’m wearing nothing!”

 “
The plus side to being almost indestructible, is it is light weight with zero drag. You’re speed will increase without you even trying,” Erica returned with pride, “and here are some accessories.”

Erica pulled out a set of bracers comprised of metal and cloth material similar to the red color of Sophia’s new outfit.

“
Wonder bands?” she sneered.

“
Uh, no,” Erica said. “As you can see your outfit doesn’t have any room for pockets.”

She slid open one of the panels on the left bracer revealing a compartment.

“
Left arm can hold cash, credit cards, etc, and the right… She slid back the panel on the right bracer. “…is basically a mini supercomputer with your own personal A.I. You can synchronize it to all of your devices. It has GPS, land, sea, aerial, orbital navigation, web browsing, you name it. Made of near indestructible materials, it is waterproof, can function in the lowest depths of the ocean, in extreme heats and subzero temperatures, basically can take a licking and keep on ticking… to a point.”

“
To a point?” Sophia smirked.

“
Yeah, it’s not going to survive planetary level rough housing or trips to the surface of the sun,” she shrugged.

She pulled out an ear piece within the brace positioned next to the mini computer.

“
One push to activate and the earpiece expands and locks into your ear,” Erica instructed. “I put it through a wind tunnel test, and it’ll stay locked in up to speeds of Mach 30. It also operates in space, and underwater, however, you can only hear people. You’ll have to use the digital keyboard to text and send messages or emails in order to communicate in those environments. Enjoy.”

Sophia gratefully took them sliding one on at a time completing the look of her outfit.

“
So what is this extremely expensive gift going to cost me?” she asked, looking them over.

“
Eh, your money’s no good here,” Lady Tech dismissed. “But if you’ve got a couple more minutes to kill, I’d be happy if you tested out my new strength tester.”

“
Strength tester?” she smiled.

“
Yeah, I was going to have Rogers and Hard-On have a go at it  tomorrow,” she shrugged again, “but since you’re here it would be nice if you would do the honors and break it in.”

“
You’re also curious to get a baseline reading on me,” Sophia grinned, seeing through her innocent request.

“
Well, we are women of science!”

“
It’s okay. I’m a bit curious myself,” she nodded. “Just one thing. Someone has got to tell that boy that “Hard-On” is a horrible name.”

“
Sounds like a name for a dirty looking crackhead porn star,” Lady Tech responded with a dull look on her face, “I mean like… Ron Jeremy dirty… in his elder years.”

“
Young lady!” Sophia laughed.

“
I’m just agreeing with you!” She smiled.

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Rosann walked the hallways in pink sweats and yellow flip flops heading back to her room. She turned the corner to see Oliver wearing a set of blue sweats with the Regulator’s symbol on the right breast coming from the opposite direction. She lowered her head pretending to be invisible. He turned looking at the wall to do the same as they passed each other.

“
Hey.” Oliver turned finding the courage at the last second.

She froze in her tracks, took a big swallow, and then slowly turned to face him. He nervously strolled over to her taking a throat gulp himself.

“
I… wanted to thank you,” he said, “for what you did in Times Square.”

“
I… didn’t do anything.” She shook her head.

“
Yeah, you did,” he nodded. “I was going to kill Jiang Shi, I really was, and I’m not just thanking you from stopping me from killing a lot of people. I know the Sergeant trained us to be soldiers, but I can’t lose sight of who I am, and why I got these powers… to be a hero.”