by SK Benton
"Gabriel, please keep him busy. I want to examine his personal console."
Gabriel knocked a vase over. Hitting the floor hard, it shattered with a loud sound, prompting Johnson to run over to the formerly valuable artifact.
Michael waved his unseen hand at Johnson's personal console, causing it to rapidly display directories and images to flash. Finally, he found what he was looking for. After setting up a macro, he put the console back the way it was - and just in time. Johnson looked over at the console quickly, as if he had seen something out of the corner of his eye. Believing it was nothing, he adjusted his suit coat and went to sit back down at his desk, intending to call housekeeping to clean up the broken ceramics, but Michael ported Johnson's chair half a meter backwards, resulting in the man falling squarely on his hind end.
"He moves like a girl," said Gabriel.
"Yes, like a sissy boy. I am relatively certain he did not participate in athletic competitions when he was a youth. He even falls like a wimp."
"Liliana could probably give him a serious beat-down without even using her skills as a mage."
"Oh man, I would pay to see that. Maybe we can make it happen?" Michael mused.
"Ok, enough with the nonsense. Let us see what the monkey is doing," said Gabriel.
The two walked around behind Johnson, who was looking around furiously, having somehow detected a presence behind him. Getting back up into his chair he saw nothing, but murmured something under his breath.
"Gunnarsson, if your ghost is here, you lost. It's too bad I won't have the pleasure of knowing you will die with the rest of this wretched planet."
Michael and Gabriel looked at each other with surprised expressions. They had bits of info regarding what Ryder Johnson had said on the castle nearly a year prior, and it seemed that their suspicions were correct. Johnson again picked up his odd console-like device and typed a short text string onto the interface.
Looking at his odd device, they read a conversation string that had gone back and forth between Johnson and someone, or something, named X'than'dor.
Johnson: Plans go accordingly. Do you have a revised ETA?
X'than'dor: 4.234 of your standard years
Johnson: As I earlier promised, if I can facilitate a quicker departure we will transport some of your troops for recon on a small moon.
X'than'dor: Why?
Johnson: Would you not like to hasten the process?
X'than'dor: Time means nothing to Vrol
Johnson: Excellent. Ok, fine. I was trying to be nice
X'than'dor: Define words "fine" and "nice"
Johnson: I will contact you later.
X'than'dor: Do not for attempt contact for another two of your standard years. We must come out of hibernation to communicate with you. It is useless. We shall arrive in 4.234 of your standard years and then absorb your planet. That is all.
Johnson: As long as you don't touch Earth.
X'than'dor: We have no such plans
Michael and Gabriel looked at the textual messages on the device. They were both mortified that Len Johnson was actually handing Azul over to an alien race, and he was apparently manipulating military policy to facilitate the aliens' attack. It was at that moment that Michael and Gabriel discovered how intrinsically evil Len Johnson actually was. Adolf Hitler attempted to wipe out an entire culture - Len Johnson was going to assist in the murder of a star system.
"This is not good, Brother. We must notify Father immediately. I should like to end this miserable creature's life and then annihilate his soul shards, eliminating any possibility of his return to the physical plane," Gabriel growled in his mind. He had recently decided to give Mankind another chance, and Jessica had opened a door for him to see Jah's favored creation in a different light, but Len Johnson was close to destroying the archangel's recently changed viewpoints.
The two 3d slipped out of Johnson's office and out into the plaza de armas, still maintaining their camouflage.
"Now this is going to be fun," said Michael.
"What is it that you plan, Brother?"
"Watch the display screens above."
There were massive display screens suspended on the sides of buildings, with roughly half of them dedicated to the arrival of the Artusians. Containing numerous falsified images of the supposed visitors, they were depicted as glowing, angelic beings - angelic as mankind believed angels to appear, while in reality the Vrol looked like huge bugs. If anyone were able to see Michael and Gabriel standing in the middle of the plaza de armas, the word archangel would be the furthest thing from their minds. Gabriel was dressed down in military camouflage and Michael was wearing what appeared to be sandals, board shorts and a t-shirt. They looked more like a soldier and a hippy than angels.
Michael brought up an infoscreen and started to tap some data into it, hacking into Len Johnson's personal console, executing a subroutine in the back end of the operating system. This subroutine created a direct wireless link between a particular directory on the personal console and the massive vid displays. As imagery started to appear, the lower-right corner of each display showed details on the o6ner of the data.
Leonard Johnson: SN 15536664364
Directory: Children's Relief Fund
Content: Hot Chicks on Luna
Asian Girls on Fire
Dega Sorority Party
Vera Conference (personal)
Michael had basically exposed Len Johnson as a pervert by playing out the chairman's risqué video collection on public vid displays. People looked up unbelievably, mothers screamed and covered their young children's eyes, college boys clapped and pointed (especially at the Dega Sorority Party vid).
The capper of the entire show was Johnson's Vera Conference vid, where the Chairman, dressed only in undershorts, did the party boy dance while sandwiched in-between two women who looked very much like dominatrix prostitutes.
Gabriel burst out laughing, causing a passing young woman to jump, not having seen where the sound had come from. Then, just for effect, Michael made the fountain in the center of the plaza explode and shoot water in all directions, which, of course, caused people to run screaming, and for little drones to come out of hidey holes and start to clean up pieces of concrete. He was dancing like a hippy as water shot out in massive streams. Gabriel kicked a drone like a football, making it fly across the plaza, as they both looked up to see Len Johnson standing with his hands up against his large picture window, a combined look of terror and rage on his ugly, pale face. Something was happening to him and he knew it was anything but normal.
"Michael, you dance like a girl. Now let's go!" teased the younger of the brothers. They both regenerated their wings and shot off into the sky, the concrete beneath their feet collapsing into three-meter-wide indentations from the pressure of their concussive ascent.
The brothers ported to the massive slip chamber they had created in their base on Vera, as they needed to use 4d coordinates (their previous location having been on a different celestial body), and immediately made for the commissary. Krynos had already assigned a rotating kitchen staff to serve the needs of the few who worked there, so the brothers replenished their resources and sat back laughing out loud. Then, without having expected it, Jessica showed up with Pandy.
"My dear girl, how long have you been here for?" asked Gabriel.
"Oh, we just arrived. How about you two?" said Jessica.
"Same. Oh, hi Pandy! Welcome to Vera. Um, have you been here before?" asked Michael.
"Hello Michael. No, it's my first time."
"Who brought you over? Draagh or Max?"
"Neither. Krynos showed us a private doorway. He opened it and we walked through," said Jessica.
"Ah yes, his study is connected to the Hub, and Father made a door to here. Quite ingenious, even for Father, would you not say, Michael?"
"Absolutely. Oh, here comes food. Are you girls hungry?"
The two lycan ladies nodded their heads and took seats at the table
. Pandy had spent the entire day learning about her new skills and training up a bit with a katana, the favored weapon of the Rhönen Dominion.
"So, what didja do today, boys?" asked Pandy.
"We spied on the leader of Max's world," said Gabriel.
"Woah! Like THE leader? That super bad guy?" exclaimed Jessica.
"The very one, my dear girl. In fact, my brother was mischievous enough to hack the chairman's personal communications device and then display his entertainment vids on large outdoor screens."
"Entertainment? What kind? Was it a live band?" asked Pandy excitedly.
"No, it was entertainment of a… disrobed nature. It appears that old Chairman Johnson has a penchant for college girls and dominatrix prostitutes," said Michael.
"Ewwwwwww!!" the girls comically cried out in unison.
"Exactly, ladies, exactly. Although I do believe that Max, Jennie and Bagatelle shall find great humor in my brother's machinations."
"Well then, let's tell them all about it!" Pandy cried out, excited to try and use her new comm device.
"Well, it is after dinner, and I am sure that Bagatelle is meditating, as I am told he does at this hour, and that Max and Jennie are with Liliana as she does her homework," said Michael.
The four had plates of food set before them, with coarse bread pieces and chunks of butter on plates in the middle of the table. Then they got to try what they liked most - honey mead. Pandy had yet to taste it, and Jessica didn't imbibe, so there was plenty for the three. Jessica usually either drank water or milk, but Gabriel had conjured non-alcoholic ginger beer for her on more than one occasion.
Archangels generally found it difficult to become inebriated. However, if they concentrated they could reduce the effects of the alcohol-nullifying salubots coursing through their systems, making themselves light-headed. This time they had no such desire, and merely went about eating their meal, after which they would return back to Krynos' castle and get a welcomed night's rest.
The following morning Draagh, Michael, Bagatelle, Gabriel, Jessica, Pandy, Max and Jennie gathered at their favorite table in the main dining hall. In fact, no one ever tried to sit at that table - ever. It was as if the table was only for Max's family.
"So Johnson was actually having textual communications with what you believe is the Vrol leadership?" asked Max, his curiosity piqued.
"Yes, my son. But from what I am to understand from Father's investigations, there is no Vrol leadership. He was communicating with all Vrol, more or less, as they are a hive mind."
"And you took his smut vids and posted them up on the main displays in the plaza de armas? Seriously?"
"Seriously," Michael responded with a smile, and causing everyone to burst out laughing.
"Oh, I wish I could have seen that!" exclaimed Jennie.
"But you can, Jennie!" said Michael, as he conjured a massive vid display, showing a recording of the chaos in New Sydney.
Numerous soldiers in Krynos' forces piled into the dining hall, and the castle was filled with boisterous laughter. Two-dozen soldiers volunteered to defend Azul after seeing the recording of Michael and Gabriel picking Johnson's nose and stealing his Scotch, and another dozen signed up after seeing Johnson's vids, each claiming he would personally hunt the dictator down and take possession of his personal console.
After the revelry had ended, the team got down to some serious conversation. Mainly, they needed to figure out how deeply embedded Johnson was in the whole New Exodus effort, and how to unravel all of the damage he had done. Max figured that if they could peacefully unseat Johnson and get the Constitution reinstated, then the military would maintain its integrity and be able to fend of the Vrol. However, if a war broke out it, could prove to create factions on Azul and the moons, which could be devastating, as a 100% cooperation would be necessary in order to defeat the oncoming alien armada. Their worlds had always been deeply connected through a federation, so a fracturing of Azul System society would most likely prove fatal.
Alicia Vasquez arrived, albeit with Michael's quick help, to provide recon on the barges. She reported that Johnson was not only keeping families on the ships, but he had scientists create a totally new control lock mechanism, called a genelock, which required a particular person's DNA in order to operate the barges in side space. And in this case it was Johnson's DNA, and not just any - it had to be live DNA - nothing frozen, or merely fresh.
"Then why do we not simply eliminate the dictator and solve the whole problem? Those ships were not meant to fly again anyway," said Gabriel.
"I wish it were that easy, sir," responded Vasquez. "You see, ALL hook drives and their accompanying subsystems have been redeveloped to require the genelock. That includes the Revolution and other ships that had been previously retrofitted."
"What a bastard. I mean, I was a rear admiral, but never a control freak on that level," said Bagatelle.
"So you are saying that if we kill Johnson, then the entire fleet will be helpless?" asked Jennie.
"I'm afraid so, Lieutenant. At least for a while."
"I'm going to Luna for some recon. I want to see what the scientists are up to and how to reverse what they've done. We've got four years, after all," said Max.
"You shall need an escort, son. Remember, Johnson already suspects that you are alive, or at the very least a spirit capable of doing damage," cautioned Michael.
"A spirit? Like a ghost? Are there really ghosts?"
"No," said Gabriel, prompting him to laugh, along with Michael and Draagh.
"Well, my boy, sometimes, yes, sometimes, there is a rift between dimensions, and certain sensitive individuals are able to detect a presence on the other side, but that has historically ended up in a permanent psychosis for the poor soul. On ancient Earth, people such as psychics, palm readers, and those who claimed they could communicate with the dead were simply liars. Nothing more. Nothing more at all," added Draagh.
"So, in all your life, has a human ever, like, seen you when you were not meant to be seen?" Jennie asked Michael.
"Oh sure! It's happened a lot. It would usually happen with someone who had recessive mage genes, but a girl with lycan recessive genes once smelled me. In fact, I had to keep an eye out on her for a while. Her genome had mutated throughout her family's lineage and she was near activation."
"Activation, as in becoming a lycan?" asked Bagatelle.
"Yes, well, at least a mild one, like Pandy and Jessica were before coming here. I am aware of that which my brother speaks - enhanced strength, senses, and feeling a mild euphoria during the full moon. It was nature's way of getting back to where it originally was. Roughly the same thing happened on Jessica and Pandy's world. In fact, that is why the Vrol did not murder their planet - humanity was basically saved by health particles that counteracted the Vrol amoebic infection. They had tried experimental patches and had found that the amoebas were destroyed upon entering Earth's atmosphere. So the insects merely abandoned the planet, stranding many of their own kind, who then hunted humans for sport," Gabriel explained.
"And how do you know this?" asked Jessica.
"I have done some… deep research, as your world interests me."
"And… why… does it interest you, Gabe?"
"I was promised a world as payment for assisting in this mission. I believe that you world is the one I would like. Think about it, Jessica. We could repair a world together. The things we could do, my dear friend. We could wipe out that Vrol infestation, and then reinstitute civilization in pockets and watch as man rebuilds his world, with our gentle prodding of course - "
"No, Gabe. Not at all. I could never - "
"What? I thought you would…?"
"Why not choose a new world, one where life needs to be brought to sentience? Not a wrecked planet to rule over. I could never be part of lording over the world of my birth. I'm sorry, sweetie."
Everyone else sat stunned, watching as Jessica turned down the chance to be a goddess-like sovereign of an en
tire world. Luckily, Draagh interrupted the conversation string and moved the agenda forward.
"So, my son. We can discuss your world later on. Right now we need to concentrate on the here and the now. Max, you would like to perform some recon on Luna and see what your peers are doing. I am fine with that, but I would ask that you take your father with you. You have already been detected, in a manner of speaking, and it would be wise to have someone of Michael's vast experience at your side. Would you not agree?"
"Yeah, Pops. I agree. Michael, would you accompany me to Luna? I could use the help."
"Certainly, my boy. I believe this shall be our first trip together," responded Max's estranged father.
"Don't go getting all emo on me now, Mikey. I'm not about to go on moonlit walks with you, and complain about how I didn't get a date to the prom quite yet, ok?"
Jennie snickered at her husband's sarcasm. It was well timed, but she was comforted by the fact that his powerful father would accompany him. Michael, on the other hand, looked at Max as if he was being a petulant child, but quickly put it in the back of his mind.
"Max, sweetie, I'll take care of Mom and Janice today, so don't worry about that stuff," said his lovely wife.
"And I shall continue over on Vera, alone if need be," added Bagatelle.
"No, Luigi, we shall go over together. There is much to be done. Jessica, please continue to assist Pandy with her training. Speaking of that, you both shall experience your first change next week, as the moon waxes, approaching its full phase," said Draagh.
The two nodded enthusiastically, with Pandy asking, "Jennie, when do you think Liliana will start changing on the full moon?"
Jennie gave her a forlorn look and said, "I'm certainly not looking forward to it."
"Aw, c'mon, hun. She can't stay a little girl forever, you know," added Max.
"What? Max! You don't realize what will happen. She'll not only be changing every few weeks, but then the hormone thing starts. She'll be sneaking off, making out with boys in dark recesses of the castle, and for all we know, kidnapping them - she is a bit edgy."